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Rob Manfred floats MLB realignment with American and National Leagues replaced by East vs. West
The MLB commissioner wants to add two expansion teams in the next few years.
The sport of baseball has changed a lot under MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, with the institution of the pitch clock, the infield shift ban, the ghost runner and, starting next year, the automatic ball-strike challenge system. But what he floated on Thursday might be the biggest change yet.
Speaking on WFAN's "The Carton Show," Manfred addressed the possibility of MLB expanding to 32 teams after nearly three decades with 30 teams. The commissioner sounded more than open to the idea, saying there are several cities that want an MLB team.
"When people want your product, you ought to try to find a way to sell it to them," Manfred said. "It's kind of basic."
That's not too new. Manfred has been flirting with the idea of expansion for years and said just a few months ago that he intends to select two cities for expansion before his planned retirement in 2029. It got interesting, however, when Manfred made pretty clear that he intends to realign the league once the two new teams are aboard.
That seems to mean going from the American League and National League to something like an East and West league, much like the NBA and NHL currently use.
Among Manfred's reasons for the change is making travel easier for the players:
MLB has been composed of the American League and National League for 125 years. They used to be very distinct leagues, with separate governing systems, rulebooks and umpire crews, but that line dissolved in 2000 under former commissioner Bud Selig to more closely resemble the rest of the sports industry.
Manfred's other pitch is that some playoff series would align better time-wise for fan bases (i.e. East Coast fans not having to stay up late to watch an ALDS game on the West Coast):
Manfred shared a vision of eight divisions of four teams and keeping teams in the same city in separate divisions.
How would that look? To throw out a quick mock-up, let's just say the two expansion cities are Nashville and Portland. If we try to create eight geographically distinct divisions with no teams in the same city while trying to preserve some premier rivalries, we could get something like this:
- West: Seattle Mariners, Portland, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers
- Southwest: Los Angeles Angels, San Diego Padres, Las Vegas Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks
- South: Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals
- Midwest 1: Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals
- Midwest 2: Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds
- Northeast: New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates
- Mid-Atlantic: Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies
- Southeast: Atlanta Braves, Nashville, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins
Please note: That is absolutely not a serious attempt to create permanent, harmonious divisions for MLB. There are some obvious problems. It's just meant to show how different things could become if Manfred is serious. And condolences to the Pirates if those divisions actually do come to pass.
Here’s him on -
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rob Manfred tells <a href="https://twitter.com/CMacWFAN?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@CMacWFAN</a> that he would like MLB to expand to 32 teams and that the league could realign along geographical lines in eight divisions of four if that happens: <a href="https://t.co/h0Vh4nvmxB">pic.twitter.com/h0Vh4nvmxB</a></p>— SNY (@SNYtv) <a href="">January 8, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
