Rob Manfred doesn't usually say the quiet part out loud. On Thursday, he did.
Speaking on WFAN's "The Carton Show," the MLB commissioner outlined a vision that would fundamentally restructure the sport: expansion to 32 teams, geographical realignment, and — here's the bombshell — potentially dissolving the American and National Leagues altogether in favor of an East vs. West format.
For a league that has operated under the same basic structure since 1901, that's not incremental change. That's a complete reset.
The case Manfred is making
"Thirty-two would be good for us," Manfred said. "When people want your product, you oughta try to find a way to sell it to them. It's kind of basic."
The commissioner has been flirting with expansion for years, but Thursday marked the clearest articulation yet of what comes after. Cities like Nashville, Portland, Charlotte, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, and Austin have all been floated as expansion candidates. Adding two teams would create obvious symmetry — 16 per league, or more radically, 16 East and 16 West.
Manfred framed the realignment through player welfare: "You would realign along geographic lines, which could alleviate a ton of the travel burden that's on players. Remember, we ask our players [to play] 162 times in 186 days."
He's not wrong about the travel problem. The current divisional setup produces absurd scheduling — a Boston-Anaheim playoff series, for instance, creates impossible viewing windows for fans on either coast.
What East vs. West would actually look like
Under Manfred's framework, eight divisions of four teams would replace the current six divisions of five. Traditional rivals would stay together where possible, but two-team cities — the Yankees and Mets, Cubs and White Sox, Dodgers and Angels — would remain in separate divisions.
The upside is obvious: more regional scheduling means less cross-country travel and more natural rivalry games. The downside is equally obvious: 125 years of American League and National League identity would effectively disappear.
"That 10 o'clock game on the West Coast, that sometimes is a problem for us, becomes a prime time game on the West Coast for the two teams that are playing," Manfred explained. "So there's a lot of advantages to it."
Split seasons and in-season tournaments?
Manfred didn't stop at realignment. He also confirmed the league has discussed split seasons and in-season tournaments — ideas borrowed from the NBA, which launched its own mid-season cup in 2023.
"We've talked about split seasons. We've talked about in-season tournaments," Manfred said. "We do understand that 162 games is a long pull. I think the difficulty to accomplishing those sorts of in-season events, you almost inevitably start talking about fewer regular-season games."
That last part is the key tension. Baseball's economic model is built on volume — more games mean more TV inventory, more ticket sales, more concession revenue. Shortening the season creates efficiencies but also sacrifices income.
The timeline
Manfred wants expansion resolved before his contract ends in January 2029. "I'm done at the end of this contract," he confirmed Thursday. "I've told [the owners] that, and I'm going to stick to it. I'll be 70. It is enough."
Before any of this happens, two obstacles remain: the Oakland Athletics need to finalize their move to Las Vegas, and the Tampa Bay Rays need a permanent stadium solution — complicated by Hurricane Milton's destruction of Tropicana Field's roof in October 2024.
There's also a new CBA to negotiate next offseason. Expansion talk will likely stay theoretical until that's resolved.
The real question
Whether fans want any of this is almost beside the point. Baseball's broadcast model is collapsing. Attendance has been inconsistent. The league needs new revenue streams and new markets.
Manfred's pitch is essentially: we can stay the same and slowly decline, or we can make bold moves and potentially grow. The traditionalists will hate it. The data suggests he might be right anyway.
Mets radio voice Howie Rose called the realignment idea "the last move before total destruction of the traditions that made baseball great." He may have a point. He may also be wrong. Baseball has survived rule changes, steroids, labor stoppages, and a pandemic. It can probably survive eight divisions of four teams.
The real question isn't whether Manfred's vision is perfect. It's whether the alternative — doing nothing — is worse.