Commissioner Rob Manfred Listed Las Vegas and Portland Among Six Potential Expansion Locations
Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Tuesday that he hopes to be around for MLB expansion and mentioned that moving to 32 teams would be "great for our sport."
In an appearance on FS1's First Things First, Manfred mentioned six potential expansion cities and explained that the addition of new teams would also lead to division and playoff realignment. Manfred elaborated that MLB has a "real list of cities, that I think are not only interested in having baseball, but are viable in terms of baseball."
"Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville in the United States, certainly Montreal, maybe Vancouver, in Canada," Manfred said. "We think there’s places in Mexico we could go over the long haul.”
The last time MLB expanded was in 1998 when the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays pushed the league up to 30 teams. Prior to that, the league expanded in 1993 with the additions of the Rockies and Marlins.
If expansion does happen, two things to note about the division realignment are that Manfred posed the idea of four-team divisions, and taking another look at how to create divisions based off geographic location, which could be even more important for scheduling and travel if there are additionally teams outside of the United States.
