WILLIAMSPORT, PA — During Sunday Night’s Little League Classic on ESPN, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred joined the broadcast for an exclusive interview during the bottom of the fourth inning and outlined the blueprint for the future of Major League Baseball.
Rob Manfred says future expansion would provide an “opportunity to geographically realign”
— #Talkin’ Baseball (#@TalkinBaseball_)
1:24 AM • Aug 18, 2025
It has been long rumored that Baseball hopes to expand to 32 teams within the coming years, waiting for the A’s and Rays to sort out their stadium situations — which is on the precipice of happening. The A’s are moving to Las Vegas and the Rays are likely to be sold by the end of September and further plans for the Rays — and possible relocation — will be completed then.
Baseball would like to add two new teams — one on the east coast, one on the west coast. Nashville is the most likely relocation city for the east coast, with other west coast locations like Portland and Salt Lake City on the table for baseball.
Adding two new teams would also allow baseball to realign — as commissioner Manfred mentioned. Could you imagine a division with both New York teams, Philly and Boston, or a division with That would be insane, and awesome for baseball.
At the end of the day, growing the sport is the best thing baseball could do for itself and realigning based on division would do this. It would make it easier on the fans to travel to away ballparks for marquee matchups. It would also allow for more division games, since there would only be four teams in each division, not five.
Speaking of growing the sport, Manfred confirmed that the upcoming TV contracts for the MLB will be resolved in the coming weeks. The Athletic reported earlier this week that Major League Baseball has reached out the Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV + and NBC/Peacock, as well as ESPN for a national package, putting more games on national TV — or on streaming platforms — for more people to see.
Rob Manfred says MLB will have their TV contracts resolved in the next couple of weeks.
— #Foul Territory (#@FoulTerritoryTV)
1:27 AM • Aug 18, 2025
Baseball is in the progress of changing for the better over the next few years, and the future of the game is very bright, expansion to new markets would only help feed the hunger that people have for baseball.
(Top Image Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images)