Radical Realignment for MLB in 2020?

It’s been more than a month since COVID-19 brought the sporting world to a crashing halt but there are hopes that a return of professional sports is in the cards. The MLB season was delayed as spring training was paused midway through and the season has been pushed off while the world tries to come to grips with what has transpired in the past few months. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve heard about varying concepts that could bring baseball back to the diamonds, not to mention the televisions, of the United States and Canada. One can only hope that it actually comes to fruition and we get back to a sense of normalcy.

Last week, we discussed the concept that the potential for the MLB season being held entirely in the state of Arizona. That would entail teams playing at their spring training sites, Chase Field, and a couple of other venues, while living in hotels. It’s unclear how things will pan out in the eyes of the players with those logistics, and it’s led to another potential concept being floated at this point in time.

The latest reports have the teams playing in two states, Florida and Arizona, with the teams based where they play spring training games. Instead of the American and National Leagues that we’re used to, this concept would put the teams in the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues, much like spring training. Accordingly, the teams would be realigned, putting teams that are geographically close in spring training in the same division. It would lead to a complete overhaul of what we’re used to seeing as far as division rivalries and would really shake up a potential playoff picture should this be put into play.

With that in mind, here is how the divisions would be aligned should this concept go into play, according to Bob Nightengale from the USA Today:

GRAPEFRUIT LEAGUE

North Division: New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers

South Division: Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles

East Division: Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins

CACTUS LEAGUE

Northeast Division: Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks

West Division: Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds

Northwest Division: Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals

As you can see by just taking a quick look, some of the most bitter rivalries in the sport will be broken up. The Red Sox and Yankees will be in different divisions, as will the Giants and Dodgers under this concept. The Cubs and Cardinals would be in different leagues and likely wouldn’t see each other unless they were to make the World Series. Under this potential concept, there would be some clear winners and losers depending on where a team would land in this scenario compared to where they normally are. Let’s take a look at those and how it could impact a potential win total.

Potential Winners:

Any team in the Cactus League Northwest: Let’s face it: this division gets the biggest boost of all from this proposed system. Three of the teams (San Diego, Seattle and Texas) get the opportunity to get away from the Dodgers and Astros, respectively, freeing them up from powerhouse teams. While Milwaukee and Kansas City are moved from the NL and AL Central Divisions, respectively, and those divisions weren’t as strong as they’ve been recently, the fact remains that getting to face the teams in this alignment is more palatable than what could come down the pipe. Kansas City likely still would be bringing up the rear in the new-look division but there would be room for improvement.

The Bronx Bombers: Sure, the Yankees wouldn’t be playing with the short right-field perch of Yankee Stadium, but the division shift works in their favor. While New York would lose punching bag Baltimore as a division rival, they also would see Tampa Bay and Boston shift into the South Division. In place of those three teams, the Yankees would get the Phillies, who disappointed last season after a big offseason, and a pair of last-place teams in the Pirates and Tigers. Neither of those teams made any major moves to make their team better for 2020 and that would seriously benefit New York’s chances to earn a division title in this wacky season.

Potential Losers:

Well, when someone wins, someone else has to lose. That’s simply the cosmic balancing of the world when you get right down to it. That’s the situation here and with that, we’ll take a look at the teams that may feel the wrath of this kind of potential realignment.

Minnesota Twins: Minnesota rolled to the AL Central crown last season and they made a couple moves to help bolster their lineup, including the addition of Josh Donaldson to man the hot corner and add another veteran bat to the mix. The problem for the Twins under this format is simple. Instead of facing a Cleveland team that is retooling on the fly, along with the White Sox, Tigers and Royals, the Twins would get Boston, who, despite their moves in the offseason, could be dangerous. In addition, Minnesota would add Tampa Bay, who won 96 games last season to earn a wild card, then won the wild card game and extended Houston to five games in the AL Division Series. Throw in Atlanta, who won the NL East with 97 victories a year ago, and you have the makings of a difficult road. Baltimore may be a pushover but the fact remains that the Twins’ trip to the top would be much more complicated in this environment.

Anyone in the Cactus League West Not Named the Dodgers: Just like the Northwest Division of the Cactus League catches a break, the rest of the Cactus League West gets belted by having to deal with the Dodgers. For the Angels, it’s not that different as they would deal with the Astros in the AL West, but things are a lot different for the other three squads. Cleveland and the White Sox are part of the squishy AL Central normally while the Reds spent a ton of money in the offseason to try and make an impact in the NL Central. All of those teams would face a much more difficult climb when it comes to dealing with the Dodgers as a division foe.

The Defending Champs: Washington finished second in the NL East last year with 93 wins en route to the first championship in franchise history. That was helped by going 29-9 against the Marlins and Phillies in the division. While Miami is still in the mix for the Grapefruit League East, the Phillies are in the North. The Mets are still there from the old NL East but the Nationals were just 7-12 against them last year. Throw in the Cardinals (2-5, scoring only 17 runs in the process) and the dangerous Astros, and the sledding for the champs to defend their crown just became a steep climb to the pinnacle of the mountaintop.

Will this potential shuffling of the league help get baseball off the ground and bring sports back to the forefront? It’s hard to say. One of the big issues with the plan to be in Arizona was the concern about players being away from their families. It’s unclear if this solution would be any better in that regard but the fact is that the owners and the union are at least exchanging ideas to come up with a potential viable option to get out on the field. How much would bettors be thrown to see some of these alignments and how would potential odds be impacted? We’ll have to see once we find out how viable a concept that this may be. As it stands, it makes for plenty of interesting what-if type scenarios and could create some new rivalries, which could spark the interest of more casual fans. That, in turn, could help drive more bets at the sportsbooks when it’s all said and done.