According to Buster Olney of ESPN, the idea of a realignment is being mulled over in which the current six divisions would be eliminated, and instead have simply the two leagues.
Olney broke the story on his twitter saying:
In the midst of labor talks, possibility of realignment,with two 15-team leagues,has been raised
The idea is to pool all the teams together, having two leagues of 15 clubs each, and the top five seeds of each league would reach the playoffs in order to eliminate “division imbalance”. In order to do so, one National League team would have to become an American League team, and Olney states that many have fitted the Astros as a possibility due to the Astros-Rangers rivalry and the potential for its progression should the move occur.
At the very least, executives would like to take an NL Central division team and move them to the AL West due to the fact that the unequal number of ballclubs is unfair for potential postseason chances.
On Olney’s twitter feed, he said:
Three sources say talks are serious–especially given union’s willingness to realign to 15-team leagues.1 source:”It could gather momentum,”
“I’d still say the odds of it happening are less than 50-50,”
