Call it the Ea$t division.
Following Rob Manfred’s recent comments about MLB expansion that would lean into Eastern and Western conferences, one often-circulated proposed four-team division would be a heavyweight quartet featuring the Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Red Sox.
Such a division would feature the second-, third- and fourth-highest payrolls in MLB this season in the Mets, Yankees and Phillies, respectively, per Spotrac, with Boston ranking 12th.
Even if one swapped in teams like the Blue Jays and their fifth-highest payroll or the Orioles, who have a new billionaire owner and a strong core of young position players, the division still remains loaded.
The proposed four-team collection is based on the idea that if MLB expands it will add two teams — possibly Charlotte, Nashville or Portland — putting the league at 32.
MLB would then create an NFL-like setup of eight divisions featuring four teams.
“I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,” Manfred said Sunday night on ESPN during the Mets’ win over the Mariners. “I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. And I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN because you’d be playing up out of the East and out of the West.”
A division with the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies would easily project as the hardest in the sport.
Emerging from such a division would be a ruthless battle each year and one of those teams would have to finish in last each year.
The East divisions already are strong, with the AL East having three playoff teams as of Tuesday and the NL East featuring three last year, but this would be a whole other level.
Gone would be the easier games against perennially bad teams like the Marlins, past Orioles teams and recent renditions of the Nationals.
The Red Sox have had some lean years in recent memory, but they have a good core of players and seem destined to contend for the next few years and still spend in the top half of the sports.
The Yankees, Mets and Phillies could always bottom out, but history shows that teams that spend at top levels in MLB tend to be in the hunt each year.
And while, yes, that’s always going to be the case that some divisions are stronger than others, the four-team template eliminates the chance for opportunities to beef up on a weaker foe.
The owners of said team surely would have problems with the alignment since it could affect their ability to earn via postseason revenue.
Playing the majority of one’s schedule against those teams would be vicious, compared to say the Braves proposed alignment featuring the Marlins, Rays and an expansion Nashville team.
A fourth-place team in that division — which could possibly mean missing the playoffs — may be better than division winners in other leagues, yet win fewer games than others.
These are all topics that MLB and the owners are surely to consider but, like most things in the world, cash rules everything around us and the money is going to do the talking.
And, in that case, there would be a lot of money talking among those four teams.
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