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I expect the two expansion teams will be in Nashville and Salt Lake City.
I do not expect the NL and AL to be disbanded altogether.
While eight divisions of four teams each seems to be all the rage it just increases the likelihood of a divsion winner having a losing record which is a farce. It happened in the NFL’s NFC South in 2022.
What would make more sense is to have a NL East, NL West, AL East, and AL West with each division having eight teams. Each division winner gets a playoff spot with a bye and then there would be four wild card teams from each league who wold open up the playoff rounds.
What a wonderful idea! Dilute the quality even further with more expansion. Why not 16 divisions with two teams, each would have a winner and one wild card!
That’s just silly CIF. But 16 division winners and 14 Wild Cards . . . Now that idea has some merit!
I like the East and West division for each league (8 teams) much better than 8 with 4. Salt Lake as an AL team and Nashville for the NL.
However, if they use a map, the Cards might end up in the west division which would not be great. NY, Philly, DC, Miami, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, ATL would likely be the East?Manfred once said expansion will occur when the Tampa and Oakland situations are resolved. Does anyone think those situations have been resolved? It looks like either one could change at any moment.
I used to like that only champions advanced to the playoffs in MLB. Sure, you can find examples of really good teams that happened to be on a division with a better team but so what? Too many playoff teams cheapens the 162 game regular season.
When there were only 16 teams; 8 NL and 8 AL it was fine to play 154 games and then the the league champions play in the WS.
As the leagues expanded it was fine to have four, 6 team divisions and create a 4 team playoff with an ALCS and an NLCS.
Three 5 team division begged for 1 WC so that you have 4 NL and 4 AL teams playing a Divisional round.
That should be it.
If MLB expands to 32 teams then I’d prefer four, 4 team divisions in each league with only Division winners advancing AND the elimination of interleague play – but we all know there will NEVER be a reduction in the number of playoff teams and interleague play is unfortunately here to stay ..
Manfred once said expansion will occur when the Tampa and Oakland situations are resolved. Does anyone think those situations have been resolved? It looks like either one could change at any moment.
They are actually moving dirt in Las Vegas on the A’s new stadium. Of course it won’t be finished until it is finished as Yogi would say but at least something is happening.
The Tampa situation is a bit murkier. They are currently doing repairs on Tropicana Field where the team is supposed to play again next year. The team is also close to being sold. That is supposed to be finalized in September so we shall see if they get it over the finish line. Supposedly the potential new owner wants to build a new stadium in Tampa but that soudns like it could be a few years away.
If they put the saves on JoJo now, and during his club control remaining, the “saves” arb pay leaves w/JoJo.
If they wanted to rent an ex-closer, on a one year for 2026, the core of relievers we have with extended control would have less “saves” premium to pay, thru their multiple arb years.
I expect the two expansion teams will be in Nashville and Salt Lake City.
I do not expect the NL and AL to be disbanded altogether.
While eight divisions of four teams each seems to be all the rage it just increases the likelihood of a divsion winner having a losing record which is a farce. It happened in the NFL’s NFC South in 2022.
What would make more sense is to have a NL East, NL West, AL East, and AL West with each division having eight teams. Each division winner gets a playoff spot with a bye and then there would be four wild card teams from each league who wold open up the playoff rounds.
I made a thread on this years ago. I went though many pages trying to find it, but I gave up. I expect Nashville to get a team and then either Portland or Salt Lake City. There have been rumors and even hinting at breaking up the traditional AL and NL, and I really hope they don’t. I think the best think to do is move Tampa Bay (relocate to Charlotte?) to the NL and move Colorado to the AL.
NL
North: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St. Louis
South: Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, Tampa Bay(Charlotte?)
East: New York Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
West: Arizona, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego, San FranciscoAL
North: Chicago White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota
South: Colorado, Houston, Kansas City, Texas
East: Baltimore, Boston, New York Yankees, Toronto
West: Los Angeles Angels, Las Vegas, Portland/Salt Lake, SeattleI know San Antonio has been mentioned too. If it was San Antonio over Portland or Salt Lake City then put them in the South and move Colorado to the West.
I say keep it at 6 playoff teams also. Each division winner gets in with 2 wild cards. I know they look at the money of the playoffs, but they should be hard to make and mean something. As far as scheduling. Each team could play same league, non division team in a home and away series (72 games), same league same division teams in 2 home and away series (36 games), and play 1 series vs opposite league (48 games). Put in 6 4 game series, played against same division teams, pushing those games to 42 and you have 162 games. As for the interleague series the NL North could play the AL North and West at home, the South and East on the road and then the next season they are flipped. Then you are guaranteed to get whatever interleague matchup the fans may want to see at home every other year. This also offers a balanced schedule they have been leaning more towards, while still playing roughly 26% of games in division.
Found it, and my ideas appear to be the same as they were 2.5 years ago.
From what it sounds like on the few podcasts I listened to about this…. Expansion is mainly being sought so the owners can get money from the Expansion Fees that new teams will pay to increase revenues for the existing teams as some are still hamstrung by the Bally’s Bankruptcy and reduced local TV revenue…they will need 23 teams to approve the new expansion team(s)…they also will need 23 to approve any new divisions….2030 seems to be the target date with the new expansion teams. It sounds like the 4 contenders right now are Charlotte, Nashville, Salt Lake and Portland.
Tampa – 3 Million population (just build a new stadium)
Charlotte – 2.8 million population (go for it)
Salt Lake City – 2.7 million population (nut that’s stretching it to all the surrounding towns)
Portland – 2.5 million population (But who wants to invest in that place. No police. Riots every night, Overloaded with vagrants. Rain every other night.) No thanks.
Nashville . Population 1.35 million. Nice place for a minor league franchise. Sell out every game for about two years. Then start looking for a new buyer of the team.
Austin – Nice place to visit. Can’t support an MLB team. Just not enough people living there yet.Synopsis – Tampa stays where it is. but somebody has to cough up the dough for a new stadium. Las Vegas is the given destination for the A’s (although rumor has it that people are starting to want to get out of that place.) Charlotte looks like the prime candidate for a new NLB franchise, I’d choose Salt Lake City next, although Nashville seems like a cozy destination for a multibillionaire who has nothing better to spend his money on, sort of like Steve Cohen of the Mets.
I kinda feel like it will be Nashville or Charlotte and Salt Lake City, too. And I like the idea of Tampa and Colorado switching leagues to make for better balance. C667 did a good job there.
It’s some ways off, but the Cards certainly wouldn’t be hurting much if the expansion draft happened today. That would be one way to eliminate some salary, potentially. Do NTCs apply to expansion drafts? Lol
The previous expansion drafts allowed teams to protect 15 off their 40 man to start. Would the Cards even want to protect 15 at this point if they had to? Maybe if you include the guys who have to come on this fall. Otherwise, I count less than 10 obvious protects and quite a few on the fence.
What makes Salt Lake City attractive is that they are on the ball and have their ducks in a row. They already have a local ownership group ready to go and their state legislature has already approved $900M to go towards a new stadium. That probably wouldn’t cover all of it but that is a big chunk.
As stated before the reason I don’t like divisions with four teams is that eventually you will have a division winner with an 80-82 record while some 87 win team in a tougher division can’t even get a wild card spot. That will create an outrage and justifiably so.
Tampa – 3 Million population (just build a new stadium)
Charlotte – 2.8 million population (go for it)
Salt Lake City – 2.7 million population (nut that’s stretching it to all the surrounding towns)
Portland – 2.5 million population (But who wants to invest in that place. No police. Riots every night, Overloaded with vagrants. Rain every other night.) No thanks.
Nashville . Population 1.35 million. Nice place for a minor league franchise. Sell out every game for about two years. Then start looking for a new buyer of the team.
Austin – Nice place to visit. Can’t support an MLB team. Just not enough people living there yet.Synopsis – Tampa stays where it is. but somebody has to cough up the dough for a new stadium. Las Vegas is the given destination for the A’s (although rumor has it that people are starting to want to get out of that place.) Charlotte looks like the prime candidate for a new NLB franchise, I’d choose Salt Lake City next, although Nashville seems like a cozy destination for a multibillionaire who has nothing better to spend his money on, sort of like Steve Cohen of the Mets.
I don’t think population is the only indicator of fan support. The Rays are annually one of the worst supported teams in MLB and I am skeptical that a new stadium will solve their problems. Miami built a new stadium and their attendance is still extremely weak.
As stated before the reason I don’t like divisions with four teams
I don’t disagree. I’m all for 16 team NL and 16 team AL. Top 4 records from both leagues make the playoffs and thats it. Make making the playoffs mean something. But ownership will never go for it at all. They will likely want a 4 division set up to increase the likelihood of making the playoffs and more teams in contention longer and getting the revenue. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try to push 8 teams from each league making the playoffs too which I absolutely hate. 50% of the league should be in the playoffs, this isn’t the NBA. I’ll compromise with leaving it at 6 with the 2 top record division winners getting a bye.
Please explain how jamming more teams to the MLB muddle will give us better baseball.
Frankly, apart from continuing to love and support our dear Cardinals I long ago gave up giving a damn who wins what in that incoherent mess they have created.
So – What do we think the goal will be for 2026?
Sure – you always try to win games but do we think the Cardinals will really try to make the playoffs or will it be an actual transition / rebuilding / retooling season?
The players will always try to make the playoffs. I don’t think the team will actively stand in their way. I’m just not sure the team will support them much.
The issue is that right now, they have the hitters for the most part. They could really use one more really good hitter, but they are mostly there. The problem is the pitching pipeline is just now being built. I think it will come, but that looks more like ‘27. And by then, the offense may be worse. I’m concerned about position player potential. Maybe it does line up for ‘27. But by then Contreras will be old and Donovan and Nootbaar will be likely in their final year. But who knows what Bloom’s team will do?
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