It’s the trade deadline. Teams are buying and selling. They’re really going for it or they’re going for prospects to build a better future.
Well, about 18 months ago, I envisioned the MLB with expansion and restructuring of the divisions (among other needed changes). If all the teams’ records were as they are today and we’ll assume the expansion teams take the last place in their divisions, then this is how the races would look:
American League
East: Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles
North: Twins, Indians, White Sox, Tigers
South: Astros, Rangers, Rockies, Royals
West: Athletics, Angels, Mariners, Pioneers*
Wild Cards (Top two would make playoffs): Indians, Red Sox, Angels, Rangers
Obviously, Athletics fans would love this as they no longer have to compete for a wild card spot and could cruise to a division title without the Astros in the way. All 17 of the Rays fans would be excited to not have to compete for the second wild card either as they would be out of the AL East and into a more balanced division… There are no losers here. Rockies fans might disagree, but they aren’t in the NL race either.
National League
East: Phillies, Mets, Pirates, Expos*
North: Cardinals, Cubs, Brewers, Reds
South: Braves, Rays, Nationals, Marlins
West: Dodgers, Giants, Diamondbacks, Padres
Wild Cards (Top two would make playoffs): Rays, Nationals, Cubs, Brewers
OMG! How much would Phillies fans love this?! This would be even more exciting for the NL playoff races!
How fun would this be?!
Playoff matchups would be like so:
AL Byes: (1) Yankees, (2) Astros
(3) Twins vs (6) Red Sox and (4) Athletics vs (5) Indians
NL Byes: (1) Dodgers, (2) Braves
(3) Cardinals vs (6) Nationals and (4) Phillies vs (5) Rays
They’d play a best of 3 for the Wild Card Series. Then, there would be a best of 5 in the Division Series, and best of 7 in the League Championship Series as usual.
Let’s make baseball great again! Let the commish know this is what we want to see!