How Does a Dodgers, White Sox, Reds, Indians, Angels Division Grab You?

How Does a Dodgers, White Sox, Reds, Indians, Angels Division Grab You?

To be more specific, how does a Dodgers, White Sox, Reds, Indians, Angels Cactus League West Division grab you? Because that's the latest being floated to USA Today's Bob Nightengale by "a high ranking official."

Parsing the words -- and we're wise to do that with plans for a 2020 baseball season flying every which way but loose -- Nightengale doesn't say that the source is a high-ranking official with Major League Baseball, or a particular franchise. But the idea that the National and American leagues would be forsaken (scary as that sounds) for this season only, with games being played in the clubs' Arizona and Florida Spring Training homes in a  realignment based on the proximity of their respective venues, makes some sense.

I don't know that it makes more sense than the league's earlier plan to bring all 30 teams to Arizona for a shortened season, but I'm willing to listen. And I'm all for creativity.

According to Nightengale, here is one example of a possible 2020 realignment:

Grapefruit League

• North: New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates.
• South: Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles.
• East: Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins.

Cactus League

• Northeast: Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics.
• West: Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels.
• Northwest: Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals.

Nightengale suggests that the DH would be employed universally in this scenario, and adds the following: "Financially, it could be a huge boon for the TV rights holders." Nail on the head. And that's fine. Baseball isn't a nonprofit business.

This is what I think is going on here. In much the same way that trade talks hit the rumor circuit -- and yes, MLB does facilitate that type of publicity for itself -- plans are being road-tested by the league. Here a plan, there a plan, everywhere a plan plan. Any baseball news feeds the beast, and I mean that in a good way. 

We're staring a seven, eight or even nine-month offseason in the face. Never in history has there been such a craving for baseball. Never. Most of us will take any baseball news we can get. Any morsel, any tidbit, any chance of a return to the diamond; good, bad or indifferent. While the empty-stadiums idea seemed like a drastic measure in mid-March, it sounds like a grand plan on April 10. I'll take anything I can get right now. Anything. And I imagine you will too.

Let's not get too worked up about the specifics in the Nightengale piece. Some high(or low-ranking) official is bound to phone in a new plan first thing Monday morning. And another one on Tuesday.

And remember, glove conquers all.

Howard Cole has been writing about baseball on the internet since Y2K. Follow him on Twitter.