On a Wednesday night special edition of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN, commissioners from professional sports leagues joined the show to talk with Pat McAfee. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred spoke about a variety of topics in his appearance, including potential expansion for the league.
“We try to think in 10-year segments. You know, what should it look like? How can we make it better?” Manfred said. “I think that one of the things that we’ve begun to think about is expansion. There’s a lot of markets in the United States and North America, quite frankly, Canada and Mexico, that would like to add Major League Baseball. When people want your product, I think it’s kind of incumbent on you to try to figure out a way if you can deliver that product to them.”
“And the advantage of expansion is it opens up a whole lot of opportunities in terms of things like geographic realignment, which promotes rivalries, reduces travel,” Manfred explained. “We have a tough season. 162 games in 186 days. That’s, you know, tough. And if you cut that travel down, it’s great for the players. So, is expansion is one thing that’s out there.”
MLB has 30 teams and last featured expansion in 1998 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now the Rays). Before that, it was 1993 with the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins (now Miami) joining MLB.
The expansion to 32 teams has been viewed as potentially being in the near future, and Manfred’s comments would suggest that’s in the league’s plans. Manfred also alluded to “geographic realignment” and the opportunity to “promote rivalries” with that, so it’s likely that the addition of two franchises would also feature some notable adjustments to leagues and divisions, which has also been a rumored possibility for several years.
Where would the new franchises be located? Nashville, Salt Lake City, Portland, Charlotte, Sacramento (currently hosting the Athletics), and Montreal (which had the Expos from 1969-2004 before the franchise relocated to become the Washington Nationals) have long been considered possible expansion locations.
On Sunday, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported, “While cities like Portland and Sacramento are preparing their bids for potential MLB expansion sites in 2031 or later, they might be wasting their time. If MLB indeed expands, Salt Lake City and Nashville are the heavy favorites.”
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.