⚾️ Redesigning MLB Leagues and Divisions

I'm interested in the concept of MLB expansion teams, and possibly completely redesigning the league. Wanna come on a weird little baseball journey with me?

So, first, let's set the ground rules:
• 162 game season stays as is
• 2 Leagues (even though they're not that different)
• 2 new expansion teams, bringing MLB to 32 teams total

So, right off the bat (sorry), we can't divide those 32 teams evenly into 2 leagues with 3 divisions each (as it currently stands) - I would propose (as I've seen many others do) a pair of 4-division leagues - an American and National League each with Northeast, Southeast, Central, and Western divisions.

Okay, with those divisions in place, we'll need to reorganize the existing teams before we can see where expansion teams fit. Take a look at the attached, I think it's the closest we get (once again, the Rockies kind of suck the life out of this, but I think they make the most sense in the west)

Okay, with all of that done, let's assign them into some leagues! We can mostly keep things the same (AL/NL teams stay in their league), but there are a few changes that will really clean this up. See below (changes in red)

I swear to god, there's a reason for those moves - obviously, all five current NL-West teams couldn't stay, so I think it's easiest to move the Diamonbacks to the AL, as we're relocating the Texas teams to the central ('cause, have you seen a map?)

I didn't just move the Astros to the NL because I'm a Yankee fan and I want to play them less - this allows for some intra-state rivalries in the scheduling (same with the Toronto-Pittsburgh flop)

So, we've got our leagues and our divisions! And we need to add a team in the AL Southeast and the NL Central. I don't super care where these go, as long as they make sense geographically, so for now we'll just call them "Nashville" (AL Southeast) and "Indianapolis" (NL Central)

So, now here comes the fun - what do matchups look like?

I made up a proposed schedule, using the Yankees as an example (though it should work fine as a template for all teams)

The idea is one 3-game series against non-div, non-league teams, two 3-game series again non-div, same league teams.

Then where it gets fun is the same-division matchups.

Obviously, four 3-game series for your same-div, same-league teams is fun (2 home, 2 away, awesome)

For same-div, non-league teams, we'll do two 2-game series (one home, one away), EXCEPT for your "interleague rival), who get two 3-game series

These forced rivalries can always be a little...forced? But here's me trying my best (and my teachers always said that's all that counts):

Same State
Yankees-Mets
Pirates-Phillies
Rangers-Astros
Rays-Marlins
Royals-Cardinals
Guardians-Reds
Cubs-White Sox
Angels-Dodgers
Giants-Athletics (I KNOW)

Close Regionally
Orioles-Nationals
Twins-Brewers (also another great MN-WI rivalry)
Tigers-Indianapolis
Padres-Diamondbacks

Kinda Forced (sorry)
Red Sox-Blue Jays
Nashville-Braves
Mariners-Rockies

That's it, that's the end of my story. Whatcha think? Is this dumb? Should I send this to MLB?

A few extra thoughts:

• Having the A’s-Giants rivalry series would be such a nice opportunity for bay-area A’s fans to get to see their team in a semi-big way every year.

• I’m gonna work up what these divisions would’ve looked like this year (ie. are they competitive, or is there a shit division?)

Also, PLAYOFFS

• Wild Card: dead 💀

• 4 teams from each league (champ of each division) have a two-round pennant race (AL/NL Semi Finals & Finals) - this terminology helps equate it to other sports and bring in new fans

• Teams are seeded by reg season record, 1v4, 2v3

• Winners play in World Series

I did have another version where the Rockies wind up in the central, and the expansion team moves from Indianapolis to Salt Lake City. It just felt like such fuckery to the Cubs/Reds/Brewers fans to push so many of their games over to MST.