In my previous post (Fixing the Playoffs) I touched on MLB expansion. It’s definitely happening at some point. In that post I discussed the playoff implications, and I’d be very excited for that format. But here, I’d like to discuss the actual expansion and what that would look like.
When expansion happens, it’ll be 2 teams, and will lead to the creation of 4 divisions in each league instead of 3. This means realignment. Realignment is the perfect opportunity to relocate some teams. I know there’s a lot of politics involved that’ll make this hard. Actually, it’s seemingly impossible to get one team to relocate, let alone 4! So I have two plans (both come with 2 expansion teams); one with 4 teams relocating, and one with two teams.
Expansion Teams
San Antonio is the first expansion team. They’re the 7th most populous city in the country and the most populous city without a baseball team. Texas is big enough for 3 teams, and San Antonio is a 3 hour drive from Houston.
Charlotte is the 16th most populous city in the country, with more than double the population of Oakland. It also exists in the heart of a black hole of no baseball in the country. The closest team in any direction is over 4 hours away (Atlanta). This part of the country needs and deserves a team.
Relocation Teams
Miami Marlins to Montreal. The two poorest teams in baseball are Miami and Tampa Bay. Maybe relocating one of them will help the remaining one, but maybe Florida is not a place that likes baseball. Both teams are relocating in the 4-team relocation plan, but in the 2-team plan, it’s just Miami. It’s a shame because Miami has the newer stadium by far, but Tampa Bay has the location, the population, and draws significantly more fans (over 4,000 more per game). The Tampa Bay area is three cities all close together that combines to have a population bigger than Chicago, the 3rd largest city.
Oakland A’s to Las Vegas. Vegas has sports now. No one cares anymore about the betting thing. With a larger population than Baltimore, Milwaukee, and many other cities, plus the abundance of tourists that will see games, a team in Vegas would thrive.
The New Divisions
The big issue in this realignment is the NL South. The Rockies and the Nationals don’t really belong there. You’re also breaking up a young Nationals/Phillies rivalry. But no other rivalry is fractured, and maybe the Phillies can battle it out with their cross-state Pirates now. If you’re trying to do this without moving any teams to a new league, then I don’t see another way this would work. The NL South is not terrible though.
The 4-Team Relocation Plan
Here the expansion teams stay the same, but we’re saying goodbye to baseball in Florida all together. As much sense as baseball makes in Tampa Bay because of it’s location and population, Florida people don’t support the sport and don’t deserve a team. Miami is still moving to Montreal, but the Ray are moving to Nashville. Like Charlotte, Nashville is in a black hole. The nearest baseball city is well over 4 hours away.
Las Vegas will still have a team, but in this plan, it’s not the A’s. Instead, the A’s will be sliding over to San Jose. They’re the 10th most populous city in the country with only 300,000 less people than San Francisco and Oakland combined. San Jose would put slightly more distance from San Francisco than Oakland, and be able to draw better from the Santa Cruz county (which adds almost another 300,000 potential fans). San Jose is also not so far from Oakland that the 5 fans there can still drive less than an hour to see their team.
As for Las Vegas, they will be getting the Royals in this deal. The Pirates, Orioles, White Sox, and Reds all drew less fans than the Royals, but the Royals seem to be perpetually poor, while the others seem to at least occasionally spend some money. As far as franchise value goes, only the two Florida teams ore worth less.
This is where relocation ends in this plan, but all other teams who like to scream poor are put on notice. I’m looking at you Baltimore and Pittsburgh!
Here’s what the Divisions look like in this plan:
The NL stays the same as my previous plan, and therefore the NL South issue remains the same. A few teams shift around in the AL from the previous plan, but I was able to get all three Texas teams in the same division here.
I believe the playoff implications of a 4-division league are really exciting. Read more about it in a previous post I made. Click HERE for that.
THE REAL CUBS FAN 