MLB planned and voted to contract by 2 teams: 1 being the fated Montreal Expos and 1 being an original franchise in the Minnesota Twins.

The proposed alignment was still uneven divisions but moved the Diamondbacks to the AL which, coincidentally, was 2 days after Arizona won Game 7 of the World Series.

AL
East: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Toronto Blue Jays
Central: Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers
West: Anaheim Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners

NL
East: Atlanta Braves, Florida Marlins, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates
Central: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals
West: Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants

Assuming these 2 contractions, I would've reverted back to a 4-division East/West alignment. With the NL then having 15 teams to the AL's 13, I would've moved the Diamondbacks as well. My thought process would've been: 1) maintain the "original 8" NL teams; and 2) keep 1 team from Florida, New York, and Texas in each league. That leaves Arizona, Colorado, Milwaukee, and San Diego. The 2 newest franchises, Arizona and Colorado, represent the American Southwest and Arizona is the newest. I wonder if that was a similar thought process for them?

AL
East: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Toronto Blue Jays
West: Anaheim Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers

NL
East: Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Florida Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates
West: Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals

If geographical:

Eastern Conference
Atlantic: Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Florida Marlins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Metropolitan: Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays

Western Conference
Central: Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers
Pacific: Anaheim Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners

If historical (federal = historical; united = modern; 1 NL historical team needed to shift):

Only considering the World Series era (1903), MLB featured the same 16 teams from 1903-1960. Those 16 teams included all of the Federal teams below plus the Minnesota Twins who, in this thread, were contracted in 2001. I chose the Philadelphia Phillies to shift to the United because of their proximity to the New York Mets as a rival and they were the last of the original 16 franchises to win a World Series (1980) with the Baltimore Orioles being the closest with their first World Series in 1966.

American League
Federal: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics
United: Anaheim Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays

National League
Federal: Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals
United: Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres

Now mixing historical (Federal/United) with a geographical alignment:

Eastern Conference
Federal: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates
United: Florida Marlins, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Toronto Blue Jays

Western Conference
Federal: Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals
United: Anaheim Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers

The division structure they had planned that maintained the 6 divisions actually works quite nicely.

The question becomes, in the 25 years that followed, does MLB ever revisit expansion, and if they do, what does it look like?

At first glance, baseball would need 2 western adds, since those are the 4 team divisions. That is of course unless they went from 28 to 32 all at once. Going that route and moving to 4 team divisions, they’d only need 1 of the 4 teams to be western. The Rockies shift eastward (a feature a lot of our speculations of MLB @ 32 include now).

So what markets would a 28 team MLB expand/return to? Inlike Montreal, I think MLB wanted to be in Minneapolis, just not with that ownership group. I’m going to guess they put one team in each part of the country:

northeast: Washington
Midwest: Minnesota
Southeast: Charlotte/Nashville
west: Portland/SLC

(05-24-2026 08:05 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  The division structure they had planned that maintained the 6 divisions actually works quite nicely.

The question becomes, in the 25 years that followed, does MLB ever revisit expansion, and if they do, what does it look like?

I think when MLB goes back from 28 to 30, Houston and Texas head to either the AL West or NL West, with expansion to Charlotte and Washington.

NL
West: LAD, SF, CO, SD, AZ
Central: MIL, CHC, STL, CIN, PIT
East: FL, ATL, NYM, PHI, WSH*

AL
West: SEA, OAK, LAA, TX, HOU
Central: KC, CHW, CLE, DET, TOR
East: TB, BAL, NYY, BOS, CLT*

When MLB expands to 32 with Minnesota and Nashville, Arizona shifts to the AL West. The White Sox, Royals, Rangers, and Astros form the new AL Central. The Orioles, Rays, Charlotte, and Nashville form the AL South, while the Yankees and Red Sox are joined by the Tigers and Blue Jays in the AL North.

Cleveland moves to the NL Central, which also gets Minnesota and Philadelphia. The NL Central then splits in two with the Ohio and Pennsylvania teams forming the NL North.