Since we've done the NBA and MLS, why not?

Pacific - Seattle, Athletics, San Francisco, LA Dodgers, LA Angels, San Diego
West - Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Houston, Kansas City, Minnesota
Central - Saint Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit
Atlantic - Boston, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore
East - Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Miami

90 games in the division (5 x 18)
72 games outside the division (24 x 3)

A few awkward splits, but Minnesota and Milwaukee have been in different leagues for a while now, and of course the Cardinals and Royals have never been in the same league (ditto for the Reds and Guardians).

I would expand the playoffs to 15 - division champions avoid the wild card round. The second and third place teams in each division face each other, with all but the top wild card needing to play a second wildcard game to narrow the field down to 8 teams.

Five geographic divisions of six does not work well with the current lineup of MLB teams. You've done about what can be done, but I'd swap Baltimore and Washington with Pittsburgh and Toronto.

I don’t see this as improvement over the existing set up.

Here’s the problem—there’s no clean, neat way to divide the MLB teams. It’s works for MLS and their geography but it’s utterly incompatible for baseball.

Look at the American South. You’ve got ATL, 2 FL teams, and 2 Texas teams. Put them together in a South division and then you’re forced to add a 6th that doesn’t fit.

Do that and then you’ve got COL & AZ orphaned.

If you try working west to east, you end up with a Central of ARZ, COL, TEX, HOU, KC, & STL. It sort of works but those last 2, especially STL, would rather be in a Midwest division. You’d also have to force 3 teams into a South division.

Theres just no good way to make it work. MLS and, IMHO, the NBA, are the only major leagues where I think it’s the best option.

Baseball doesn't do geographical alignment at a full MLB scale but playoffs are best for TV when teams from all over the country are playing. However, I'd prefer regional divisions with a straight playoff and no AL/NL or EC/WC setup.

ALIGNMENT

At 6x5:
Atlantic - Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, Tampa Bay, Washington
Central - Chicago, Chicago, Kansas City, Minnesota, St. Louis
Metro - Boston, Philadelphia, New York, New York, Toronto
Midwest - Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh
Pacific - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle
Southwest - Arizona, Colorado, Houston, Las Vegas, Texas

At 5x6:
Atlantic - Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Miami, Tampa Bay, Washington
Central - Chicago, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minnesota
Metro - Boston, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto
Pacific - Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle
Southwest - Arizona, Colorado, Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis, Texas

PLAYOFFS
> 16 Teams
> 6 Autobids to Division Champions Only; 10 Wild Card Bids
> 3-Game Series: Round of 16 (all at higher seed)
> 5-Game Series: Round of 8 (2-2-1)
> 7-Game Series: Semifinals & World Series (2-3-2)

------------------------------

The 6x5 seems decent to me. Separating Baltimore from Boston and New York was difficult but it seems fine. The 5x6 is definitely harder by doable. There are rivalries in both setups (like Cubs-Cardinals) that would need to be prioritized in scheduling.

(12-23-2025 06:21 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  Since we've done the NBA and MLS, why not?

Pacific - Seattle, Athletics, San Francisco, LA Dodgers, LA Angels, San Diego
West - Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Houston, Kansas City, Minnesota
Central - Saint Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit
Atlantic - Boston, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore
East - Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Miami

90 games in the division (5 x 18)
72 games outside the division (24 x 3)

A few awkward splits, but Minnesota and Milwaukee have been in different leagues for a while now, and of course the Cardinals and Royals have never been in the same league (ditto for the Reds and Guardians).

I would expand the playoffs to 15 - division champions avoid the wild card round. The second and third place teams in each division face each other, with all but the top wild card needing to play a second wildcard game to narrow the field down to 8 teams.

I was going to try to tweak it to keep more of a AL/NL split but I decided I like your version better. Well done.

I don’t ever see baseball going purely geographical and abandoning AL & NL. There’s just too much history there. What we could see is a few teams get swapped for more geographically aligned divisions within AL & NL:

NL West: Seattle^, SF, LAD, LAA^, SD, LV^, SLC*, AZ
NL East: NYM, PHI, WASH, PIT, CIN, CUBS, MIL, STL

AL West: COL^, KC, Texas, Houston, MIN, CWS, DET, CLE
AL East: BOS, NYY, TOR, BAL, ATL^, MIA^, TB, NASH*

*expansion ^switched leagues

I agree that baseball will likely not stray from the AL/NL alignment. I don't think switching teams is necessary. My alignment is pretty simple, I think. Expand to 32 with the Nashville Stars and Utah Hornets. Relocate the Tampa Bay Rays who become the Carolina Pilots.

American League
Central: Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers
East: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Carolina Pilots, New York Yankees
North: Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays
West: Las Vegas Athletics, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners, Utah Hornets

National League
Central: Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals
East: Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins, Nashville Stars
North: New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals
West: Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants

Any geographically-based alignment would be wonky but perhaps something like this (with the same expansion/relocation as above):

Eastern Conference
Atlantic: Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies
Mideast: Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers
Northeast: Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals
Southeast: Atlanta Braves, Carolina Pilots, Miami Marlins, Nashville Stars

Western Conference
Central: Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers
Midwest: Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals
Pacific: Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners
Southwest: Arizona Diamondbacks, Las Vegas Athletics, San Diego Padres, Utah Hornets

(05-17-2026 11:40 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  I agree that baseball will likely not stray from the AL/NL alignment. I don't think switching teams is necessary. My alignment is pretty simple, I think. Expand to 32 with the Nashville Stars and Utah Hornets. Relocate the Tampa Bay Rays who become the Carolina Pilots.

American League
Central: Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers
East: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Carolina Pilots, New York Yankees
North: Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays
West: Las Vegas Athletics, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners, Utah Hornets

National League
Central: Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals
East: Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins, Nashville Stars
North: New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals
West: Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants

Any geographically-based alignment would be wonky but perhaps something like this (with the same expansion/relocation as above):

Eastern Conference
Atlantic: Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies
Mideast: Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers
Northeast: Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals
Southeast: Atlanta Braves, Carolina Pilots, Miami Marlins, Nashville Stars

Western Conference
Central: Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers
Midwest: Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals
Pacific: Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners
Southwest: Arizona Diamondbacks, Las Vegas Athletics, San Diego Padres, Utah Hornets

That’s not terrible—I’m just not a big fan of 4 team divisions. Seems to small to me. I prefer 4 divisions of 8, or sticking with 6 divisions of 5/6. With the abundance of wild cards now available in baseball, being in a division with an extra team (the 6 team division) isn’t as disadvantageous as it was in the days of only 1 wild card per league.

In a different thread I postulated a historical and a historical/geographical alignment with the 2001 contraction plan by MLB. I'll do the same idea for an expanded 32 plan with the following: expand with #31 Nashville Stars and #32 Utah Hornets plus a relocation of the Tampa Bay Rays to the Carolina Pilots. The Federal divisions contain the original 16 franchises.

HISTORICAL

American League
Federal: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Las Vegas Athletics, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees
United: Carolina Pilots, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Utah Hornets

National League
Federal: Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals
United: Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Nashville Stars, New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals

HISTORICAL/GEOGRAPHICAL

Eastern Conference
Federal: Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates
United: Carolina Pilots, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Nashville Stars, New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

Western Conference
Federal: Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Las Vegas Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals
United: Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels, Utah Hornets, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers

Remember, when they split into divisions in 1969, it was:

West: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco
East: Chicago, Montreal, Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis

So there's zero chance that the Cardinals and Cubs get split up.

(06-04-2026 03:26 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  Remember, when they split into divisions in 1969, it was:

West: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco
East: Chicago, Montreal, Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis

So there's zero chance that the Cardinals and Cubs get split up.

You're correct that the Cubs and Cardinals are one of the least likely pairs to be broken up, but I think that screwy alignment was mainly because the Cubs and Cards wanted eastern exposure. Otherwise Atlanta and Cincinnati would have taken their place.

(06-04-2026 06:30 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(06-04-2026 03:26 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  Remember, when they split into divisions in 1969, it was:

West: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco
East: Chicago, Montreal, Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis

So there's zero chance that the Cardinals and Cubs get split up.

You're correct that the Cubs and Cardinals are one of the least likely pairs to be broken up, but I think that screwy alignment was mainly because the Cubs and Cards wanted eastern exposure. Otherwise Atlanta and Cincinnati would have taken their place.

MLB tried to clean this up in the late 1980s or early 1990s prior to the Colorado/Florida expansion, but the Cubs' tantrum over heading west was primarily a function of Superstation WGN, who did not want a bunch of games starting at 9:00 or 9:30 Central Time. So instead we kept getting Braves games on Superstation WTBS starting at 10:05 Eastern Time.

(06-05-2026 06:43 AM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(06-04-2026 06:30 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(06-04-2026 03:26 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  Remember, when they split into divisions in 1969, it was:

West: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco
East: Chicago, Montreal, Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis

So there's zero chance that the Cardinals and Cubs get split up.

You're correct that the Cubs and Cardinals are one of the least likely pairs to be broken up, but I think that screwy alignment was mainly because the Cubs and Cards wanted eastern exposure. Otherwise Atlanta and Cincinnati would have taken their place.

MLB tried to clean this up in the late 1980s or early 1990s prior to the Colorado/Florida expansion, but the Cubs' tantrum over heading west was primarily a function of Superstation WGN, who did not want a bunch of games starting at 9:00 or 9:30 Central Time. So instead we kept getting Braves games on Superstation WTBS starting at 10:05 Eastern Time.

That's a little crazy that they listened to the Cubs rather than the Reds and Braves.

The Cubs had one of the lowest attendances in baseball throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

The Reds' attendance was also low, but it was higher than the Cubs. And the Reds had started construction on a massive new stadium in a prime location.

I can't imagine the Cards would have cared about "Eastern exposure." The Cardinals' strength was an extensive fanbase throughout the Plains and Southwest. They were the only team that broadcast games in that region on the radio (other than the Reds), and they had an extensive farm system in the region. Their minor league teams in 1968 were in the West, not the East: Tulsa, Little Rock, Cedar Rapids (Iowa), Modesto (California), Lewiston (Idaho), and St. Petersburg (Florida).

Surely, the Cardinals would have preferred to be in a division with the Astros rather than any East Coast team. Not only is Houston closer, but the Cardinals had a minor league team based in Houston from 1920-1958.


As for other teams' preferences: surely, the Pirates would have preferred playing the Reds (who are a lot closer) rather than the Cubs and Cardinals. Chicago, St. Louis, and Atlanta are all about the same distance away from Pittsburgh, but the Braves are in the same time zone.

I tried to find out why the NL divisions had the Cubs/Cards and Reds/Braves in weird divisions.

Wikipedia claims that it was for competitive balance. The Cards, Giants, and Cubs had finished 1-2-3 for the past two years, and the Cards-Giants-Dodgers had won the last 7 NL pennants.

But this other article (below) says that the biggest reason was that the Mets were furious about losing games against the Dodgers & Giants (who still had large fanbases in New York), and the Mets wanted more games against the Cardinals because the Cardinals were always a pennant contender that drew large crowds.

https://tht.fangraphs.com/when-east-was-west/

Quote:It took more than 10 votes for National League owners and executives to agree on the division alignments.

Mets owners wanted to be in the same division as the Dodgers and/or Giants, which had left New York less than a decade earlier and still had large and highly engaged fan bases in the city. The Cardinals and Cubs wanted to be in the same division, and the Reds wanted to be in the same division with them.

The Dodgers didn’t want to be in the same division as the Padres, whom they considered interlopers on their territory. There really wasn’t a way to make everyone happy, so the National League ended up settling on a solution that made no geographic sense.

For the Braves and Reds, 18 games against the Dodgers, Padres and Giants meant at least three West Coast road trips per year and generally later start times for radio and TV broadcasts back home. The Cardinals and Cubs — again, both of whom were farther west than Atlanta and Cincinnati, and in a different time zone — had to make only two such trips.

St. Louis general manager Bing Devine, naturally, was pleased. Not only would his team play the majority of its games in the Eastern and Central time zones, they would play 18 games per year against their arch-rival Chicago Cubs.

“If expansion was to come about, as it was, then this seemed to be the logical thing to do,” Devine told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “And although the Cardinals won’t play teams such as Los Angeles and San Francisco as much now, we won’t lose contact with them for good. In our division, we will have Chicago, and the rivalry between the Cubs and Cardinals has always been a good one…I recognize that from a rivalry standpoint, a division with St. Louis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco could have been the most interesting. The league went the way it did for the best baseball interest. I think it made the wisest move.”

And though he initially resisted moving to the West Division, Cincinnati Reds president Francis L. Dale seemed to buy what Devine was selling. Rather than complain about more West Coast trips, he chose to focus on cultivating rivalries with new division-mates Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta.

“Our statistics show the three top draws in our park in recent years were St. Louis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco,” Dale told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “We have two of those in our division. Atlanta is also in what we consider our trade area, and we’ve been building up a good rivalry with them.”

As noted, New York Mets executives were less thrilled with the new set-up. “I went to Houston with the understanding that either the Giants or the Dodgers would be in our division,” a disappointed Mets chairman M. Donald Grant told The Sporting News.

As with Devine and Dale, Atlanta owner Bill Bartholomay appeared to take the short-term view. Atlanta Constitution columnist Jesse Outlar wrote July 12 that not only were Atlanta fans used to the idea of playing in the West Division because the NFL’s Falcons already did so, but that more games against league powers Los Angeles and San Francisco meant more money at the gate for Bartholomay, steeper travel expenses be damned. (Outlar also wrote that it was good for the Braves to be in a different division than the Cardinals, who in 1968 were on their way to a second straight NL pennant.)

The person who seemed the angriest was not even connected to a National League team. It was Chicago White Sox owner Arthur Allyn. “We are strongly opposed to…the makeup in our division,” Allyn said. “We plan to appeal to the commissioner and will abide by his decision.”

Few took Allyn’s pleadings seriously. South Bend Tribune columnist Joe Doyle wrote on July 12 that “the folks running Atlanta and Cincinnati television shows probably have more real complaints than the White Sox.”

Allyn’s appeal eventually was heard in October but swiftly denied by Eckert. The following year, Allyn sold his interest in the White Sox to his brother John, who eventually sold the team to Bill Veeck in 1975.

At this point there are fairly well organized expansion efforts out of Raleigh, Salt Lake City, and Portland. If Nashville and Montreal can nail down funding, MLB could have five divisions of seven:

Seattle, Portland*, San Francisco, LA Angels, LA Dodgers, San Diego, Las Vegas
Arizona, Utah*, Colorado, Texas, Houston, Minnesota, Milwaukee
Kansas City, Saint Louis, Cubs, White Sox, Nashville*, Cincinnati, Cleveland
Detroit, Toronto, Montreal*, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Boston, Pittsburgh
Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Raleigh*, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Miami

Play one three-game series against all of the teams outside your division (28 x 3 = 84) and four three-game series against teams in your own division (6 x 12 = 72) for 156 games.

(06-11-2026 07:45 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  At this point there are fairly well organized expansion efforts out of Raleigh, Salt Lake City, and Portland. If Nashville and Montreal can nail down funding, MLB could have five divisions of seven:

Seattle, Portland*, San Francisco, LA Angels, LA Dodgers, San Diego, Las Vegas
Arizona, Utah*, Colorado, Texas, Houston, Minnesota, Milwaukee
Kansas City, Saint Louis, Cubs, White Sox, Nashville*, Cincinnati, Cleveland
Detroit, Toronto, Montreal*, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Boston, Pittsburgh
Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Raleigh*, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Miami

Play one three-game series against all of the teams outside your division (28 x 3 = 84) and four three-game series against teams in your own division (6 x 12 = 72) for 156 games.

Expand the playoffs from 14 to 16 with autobids to division winners in a 1v16, 2v15, 3v14, etc. format.

(06-11-2026 07:45 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  At this point there are fairly well organized expansion efforts out of Raleigh, Salt Lake City, and Portland. If Nashville and Montreal can nail down funding, MLB could have five divisions of seven:

Seattle, Portland*, San Francisco, LA Angels, LA Dodgers, San Diego, Las Vegas
Arizona, Utah*, Colorado, Texas, Houston, Minnesota, Milwaukee
Kansas City, Saint Louis, Cubs, White Sox, Nashville*, Cincinnati, Cleveland
Detroit, Toronto, Montreal*, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Boston, Pittsburgh
Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Raleigh*, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Miami

Play one three-game series against all of the teams outside your division (28 x 3 = 84) and four three-game series against teams in your own division (6 x 12 = 72) for 156 games.

There has never been an odd total number of teams in MLB history, since it would mean that not all teams could play at the same time.

Pacific: SEA, SF, LAA, LAD, SD, LV
West: ARZ, COL, TEX, HOU, KC, STL
Midwest: MIN, MIL, CUBS, CWS, CLE, CIN
East: BOS, NYY, TOR, BAL, DET, TB
Atlantic: NYM, PHI, PIT, WAS, ATL, MIA