Mariners, MLB short-term realignment should be permanent… kind of

MLB’s plan to restart the season which includes the Mariners playing in a division with Milwaukee, San Diego, Kansas City, and Texas. This would be a short-term solution but should lead to new divisions in the next CBA.

If the latest MLB plan does come to fruition, they may use this already strange and shortened season to try some new things, including the universal DH. And while National League snobs will cry at this statement, the universal DH should remain the norm going forward. Without that major rule difference, there is an opportunity to shake up the alignment of every team, including the Mariners.

The proposal would be relatively simple: Keep the American League and National League structure and regroup division pairings to best cut down on travel time. What could this mean for the divisions, or more importantly, the Mariners? Let’s take a look at our proposed divisions.

• Cascadia Division- Seattle Mariners, Oakland A’s, San Francisco Giants, LA Dodgers, LA Angels
• Southwest Division- San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Houston Astros
• Mid-American Division- Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals, St, Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers
• Industrial Division- Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates
• Northeast Division- New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets
• South Division- Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Marlins

No plan would be perfect, but this realignment makes the most sense geographically while keeping as many historic rivalries as possible including, Yankees vs Red Sox, Giants vs Dodgers, and Cubs vs Cardinals.

From the Mariners perspective, this would drastically cut down on the usual travel, basically eliminating at least 4 trips to Texas. Teams would play their division opponents 20 times each, with the other 82 games being split amongst the other 25 teams, allowing every team to play everybody in the game for at least 3 games.

I don’t believe we will see any drastic realignment until expansion comes to baseball, which may take even longer than we thought after the economic impact of COVID-19. But this plan makes a lot of sense and could shake things up for many fans across the country.