MLB Expansion and Realignment Proposal: A Bold New 154-Game Schedule to Revive Rivalries and Balance the Game

Since commissioner Rob Manfred went on Sunday Night Baseball in Williamsport two weeks ago, the talk of the town has been MLB Expansion and Realignment. There have been multiple models of realignment, not all of them make sense, so I decided to create a realignment plan based on both Geography and keeping most rivalries intact.

For expansion, I added two teams — one in Nashville and one in Salt Lake City since those seem to be the most likely teams to be added.

This division consists of four teams all on the coast of the Atlantic, keeping three teams from the old AL East (Yankees, Red Sox, and Orioles) and adding a new team to the division. I believe keeping the New York-Boston rivalry is important to the foundation of baseball is important. The O’s are a young team that could be good in the coming years, as they were in 2023 and 2024, which created some fun matchups with the Yankees and Red Sox. For the sake of travel, I added the Washington Nationals to the AL East. The Nationals are another young up and coming team that could make this a very tough divison.

The AL North would be a rebranded division created by pulling four teams from the current AL Central: the Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Guardians, and Chicago White Sox. The rebrand makes sense geographically, since all four clubs are located in the northern half of the United States. This new name emphasizes location more clearly than the somewhat vague “Central” label. Minnesota and Detroit sit in the upper Midwest, often associated with cold-weather baseball and long winters. Cleveland, positioned on Lake Erie, is another northern-market team with its own history of playing through frigid early-season conditions. Chicago’s South Side club fits naturally in this grouping as well, representing one of the northernmost big markets in the league.

The AL Central is all new, featuring three new teams, the only same team — the Kansas City Royals. The AL Central will add both the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers to the division, keeping the silver boot rivalry in tact, while also adding the Rockies to the division. This will make things much easier for travel in the central.

The AL West undergoes a dramatic change with the addition of one of MLB’s two new expansion franchises, the Salt Lake Bees. This move not only brings top-level baseball back to Utah but also reshapes the division’s dynamics. The Bees, entering as the newest member alongside the established Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics, and Los Angeles Angels, inject fresh competition into a division already known for its unpredictability. Salt Lake’s inclusion means that the AL West gains both a new market and a natural geographic rival for the Mariners, creating the potential for regional matchups that could quickly grow into heated rivalries. With the Athletics’ future in flux and the Angels struggling to find consistent footing, the arrival of the Bees adds an element of intrigue to how the division will be balanced in the years ahead, both competitively and culturally.

The NL East keeps the hated Mets-Phillies rivalry intact, preserving one of the most heated and historic matchups in baseball, but the division shake-up also brings fresh intrigue. The addition of the Pittsburgh Pirates injects a classic National League franchise with deep tradition, while the inclusion of the Toronto Blue Jays adds an international flavor and a team that has long been a powerhouse in recent decades. These moves not only expand the competitive landscape of the division but also create new storylines—Toronto’s heavy-hitting lineup testing itself against elite NL East pitching staffs, and Pittsburgh’s young core being thrown directly into one of the toughest divisions in baseball. With these changes, the NL East becomes even more unpredictable, balancing its fierce old rivalries with fresh battles that could reshape the standings for years to come.

The NL Central remains largely unchanged in the proposed realignment, with the only adjustment being the removal of the Pittsburgh Pirates. This means the division would still feature its traditional core of the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, and Cincinnati Reds, preserving many of baseball’s most historic rivalries. By keeping these four intact, the division retains its balance of big-market teams, like the Cubs and Cardinals, alongside smaller-market clubs such as the Reds and Brewers. The Pirates’ departure, however, slightly alters the competitive landscape, as Pittsburgh has historically served as both a rebuilding club and an occasional dark horse. Their exit could create ripple effects in scheduling and rivalry dynamics, but overall, the division’s familiar identity and tradition-heavy matchups remain firmly in place.

The NL South is an all-new division with an all-new team — the Nashville Stars — bringing a fresh dynamic to Major League Baseball’s landscape. Joining the Stars are the Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, and Miami Marlins, creating a group that, on paper, looks less formidable compared to other divisions. The Braves provide a perennial powerhouse presence, but outside of them, the Rays have been streaky in recent years, while the Marlins continue to rebuild and lack consistency. With Nashville entering as an expansion franchise, the division has the potential to be more competitive than it appears at first glance, but early projections suggest it could be one of the weaker divisions overall. This alignment not only gives the Stars a chance to grow into the league without being immediately overwhelmed, but it also creates a new geographic rivalry cluster in the Southeast, potentially boosting regional fan interest even if the division struggles against stronger counterparts across baseball.rlins to the division, making it one of the weaker divisions in baseball.

The NL West will largely remain intact, preserving its core rivalries and geographical logic. The only major shift would be the removal of the Colorado Rockies, who have long been considered the division’s outlier due to both performance and geography. Without Colorado, the division would still consist of the Dodgers, Giants, Padres, and Diamondbacks — teams with deep-rooted rivalries, competitive balance, and regional proximity that keep the division strong and marketable. This change would streamline the NL West into a tighter, more competitive grouping, while also opening the door for Colorado to potentially realign with a division that better suits their geographic or competitive profile.

One of the biggest questions is ‘how will the schedule look with all these new divisions/teams?’ My answer is the end of the 162-game schedule. I propose a 154 game schedule to make less regular-season games and add the potential for more postseason games.

Under this proposed 154-game schedule, every team’s season would be built mostly around 3-game series with a heavy focus on divisional rivalries. The reason I kept the focus on division rivals is because in today’s game, you have teams (like the Yankees) who can get by without being successful against their own division — the teams they need to beat to win — and keeping division rivals playing each other on a regular basis will make the sport better. Each team would play its three division opponents 21 times each (7 series apiece) for 63 games. Teams would then face the other 12 teams in their league twice each (one home series and one away series), adding up to 72 games and ensuring regular competition across the league, like it is now in MLB. For interleague play, each division would be matched with one division from the opposite league on a rotating yearly basis, with six 3-game series (18 games total)—playing all four opponents once and two of them twice in that cycle. To reach 154 games, each team would also play one additional “flex” rivalry or showcase game — like Yankees-Dodgers in a year were the AL Atlantic plays the NL Central — which could highlight historic or regional matchups. This structure emphasizes division rivalries, maintains balance within the league, and keeps interleague play fresh without overloading the schedule.