Yankees and Mets in the same division? How Rob Manfred envisions MLB realignment post-expansion

Manfred has long said he wants two more expansion teams selected before he leaves office

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred was in studio for a segment on WFAN in New York Thursday afternoon and among the topics broached was expansion and, along with it, realignment. It's been a hot button topic the last few years, as it's been a long time since MLB expanded and the league is currently thriving. 

While the league is currently balanced with two leagues of 15 teams and six divisions of five, each league having an odd number of teams feels a bit off. And, again, the league hasn't expanded since the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays joined the fray in 1998. The commissioner has long said he wants two expansion teams selected before his term expires in January 2029.

"Thirty-two would be good for us," he said, also noting there are a lot of cities that want a Major League Baseball team. "When people want your product, you oughta try to find a way to sell it to them."

Mathematically, 32 teams would fit more snugly into leagues than 30, given that you could have 16 teams in each league and eight divisions of four. 

"It does a ton for us from a format perspective," the commissioner said. "You would realign along geographic lines, which could alleviate a ton of the travel burden that's on players." 

It's a good point. Keep in mind that MLB players travel so much more than players in any other sport, given the 162-game schedule, even with it divided up into 2-4 game series throughout the season. 

Manfred also discussed what a problem the first round of playoff games can be, logistically, if featuring a team from each coast, making the scheduling either too late for people in the east or too early for people in the west -- and sometimes both. Other leagues, like the NBA, are more cleanly split geographically, allowing the Knicks to play in eastern time and the Thunder in western, for example. 

The big takeaway there is that Manfred likes the idea of moving away from the American and National Leagues and instead toward East and West leagues. However, he did say he would want to keep the two-team cities "separate." That is to say that the Cubs and White Sox, Mets and Yankees and Dodgers and Angels, respectively, would remain in different divisions.  

Upon first glance, that might seem like a tough needle to thread, but not impossible.Even if the Mets and Yankees, for example, were both in an Eastern League, you could group the Yankees with the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Pirates while the Mets could go with the Phillies, Orioles and Nationals. It could work.

Regardless, there's a CBA next offseason that needs to be completed and Manfred has also said in previous years that he won't deal with expansion until the stadium situations are resolved for the A's and Rays. 

Still, it's a fun offseason topic of discussion.