The Seattle Mariners and MLB expansion

How will Realignment look pt. 2?

Here is how the American League realignment will play out...

AL East- Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Blue Jays

AL South- Rangers, Astros, Royals, Rockies

AL Central- Guardians, Twins, Tigers, White Sox

AL West- Mariners, Athletics (Vegas), Portland, Diamondbacks

Just like in the National League, we realigned two teams, preserved traditional rivalries, and hopefully created a few new ones.

The AL East and Central stay the same, minus the Rays moving to Montreal and the NL, as well as the Royals moving into the brand-new AL South. This new division will be headlined by the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros joining, while the Kansas City Royals and Colorado Rockies will realign to the new division. Joining the Rockies in making the AL jump are the Arizona Diamondbacks. The DBacks will join a drastically different-looking AL West that will consist of them, the Seattle Mariners, the Las Vegas Athletics, and the expansion Portland franchise. 

I believe the AL South is another situation where realignment can help with competitive imbalance. The Rangers and Astros are teams that are financially committed to being contenders at different points in the past 15 years. Pairing them with two teams in KC and the Rockies, franchises that have historically been cheap, may force their hand to spend more if they want to be competitive. 

The AL West essentially becomes the wild wild west. So much unknown, but we’d see the creation of two brand-new rivalries as well as the potential rebirth of the Athletics franchise. We have seen the Raiders and Golden Knights become immediately competitive in the city and maybe there’s a little bit more magic left for the A’s.