Red Sox CEO Breaks Silence On MLB Expansion, Division Realignment

As the Boston Red Sox attempt to hang on for dear life to a playoff spot, a much larger conversation has seized the attention of the Major League Baseball community at large.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred strongly hinted at the possibility of adding two teams to the league in the near future during Sunday's Little League Classic broadcast on ESPN. With that would likely come geographically-motivated realignment, and the creation of eight divisions of four instead of six divisions of five.

So there are a ton of questions that would pertain specifically to the Red Sox, such as who the new teams in their division would be, how much less they'd have to travel, and whether they would have to compete more often with big-market franchises in the Northeast like the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.

Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy gives his take

“In my mind,” Manfred said, per Sean McAdam of MassLive, “I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign.”

That's a pretty clear indication that something big is coming, and it's likely to be announced before Manfred steps down at the end of the decade. So what does the Red Sox ownership group think about the spector of blowing up the current leagues and divisions?

“We would want to study these (proposals) further and understand them fully,” Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy told McAdam. “For now, it’s more brainstorming. But personally, I’m widely supportive of these ideas that are innovative and have the potential to grow the game.

“When baseball made its (on-field) rule changes (several years ago), it made our game better. In my mind, if you’re not looking to be bold in today’s environment, you run the risk of going backward. (Some of these ideas around full-scale realignment) are really exciting to contemplate.”

Kennedy also specifically addressed the idea of the Red Sox having to compete in a division with, say, the Yankees, Mets, and Phillies, which would be by far the toughest gauntlet in the majors.

“We need to be ready to be competitive in any future format, however realignment plays out," Kennedy told McAdam.

The future will eventually reveal all the answers we seek, but for now, realignment remains a mysterious hot topic.

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