Yesterday it was reported that the MLB will be expanding in the near future, however it was not an official announcement. This got me thinking about the best options for expansion.
The way the league is set up, eventually you would have to assume that each divison in the league would need to add a team – meaning there would need to be a total of 6 expansion teams over the foreseeable future, due to just the sheer fact that the unbalanced divisions would cause some issues, which we saw when the NL Central and AL West prior to the Astros leaving the Central for the West, which made all the divisions equal.
Now, I know that the league will not go from 0 to 100 and expand by 6 immediately, but over time it’s the only logical thing to do. So with that said, I decided to expand the league by 6 below, in order of logical expansion.
1 – AL Central – Nashville Stars
Not a massive fan of the name, but you know, got to play into the country music “star” narrative. Nashville is a booming market, and they already host one of the top 5 AAA teams in attendance, the Nashville Sounds. The Predators and Titans have loyal fanbases, and there isn’t much to suggest an MLB team wouldn’t find fandom there as well.
2 – AL East – Montreal Expos
As much as I would love to see a “new” team join the MLB, the fact that the fans in Montreal want “their” team back, it makes the most sense for the league to put an already once established franchise back in play. While the Expos struggled with fans during their time, we already have teams struggling with the same thing – might as well bring back the Expos and let the Canadians get what they want. While the original Expos were in the NL East, the newly formed will join the AL East, setting up a Canada Rivalry with the Blue Jays.
3 – NL Central – Charlotte Aviators
North Carolina was the location for the first Wright Brothers flight, and it makes sense to reference them in the team’s name. The issue being that the Las Vegas AAA affiliate of the Oakland A’s is already named the Aviators…however how long they will be a team is in question with the MLB team moving there in the next few years.
4 – NL West – Portland Lumberjacks
Portland hosts the NBA’s Trailblazers, and thats it. The city is constantly mentioned for expansion of the MLB, however they have never officially been in the running for an expansion team (in 1994 and 1998 during the last expansions). Lumberjacks is in reference to the millions of tree’s in Oregon, with the Beavers being a close second option, however with Oregon State Beavers in the region – might not work out.
5 – NL East – Orlando Gators
*Note: Not a fan of this logo, working with what I’ve got*
Orlando has the “Orlando Dreamers” group already in place to form an expansion team in Florida, however I hate the name Dreamers. The Orlando Magic are the only professional sports team in the area, and the city has been included in the previous and current expansion talks, it would make the most sense for them to be included sooner than later, however the cities above just make a tiny bit more sense.
6 – AL West – Salt Lake City Seagulls
The Seagull is the state bird of Utah, and while the city is only home to an NBA team (similar to Portland and Orlando), they also host a AAA team (just like Charlotte and Nashville)…unfortantly unlike those AAA cities, the AAA Angels affiliate the Salt Lake Bees does not rank amongst the top in attendance. The expansion of the AL West would be last on the list due to the geographic struggles of no “perfect” city to expand to.
While the expansion of 2 teams is going to happen within the next 2-3 years, the full 6 team expansion is more of a pipe dream – 20 years down the road kind of thing.
Till Next Time,
Trevor
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