Baseball Expansion: What to Expect

With baseball’s expansion draft just around the corner, fans are wondering what to expect. Here’s a look at some of the most likely scenarios.

Introduction

With Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Expansion Draft less than a week away, baseball fans are wondering what to expect. The Expansion Draft which will take place on Wednesday, December 2, will mark the first time in 13 years that baseball has seen new teams enter the league.

With the addition of the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners MLB will now have 26 teams. As a result of expansion, each existing team will lose two players to the draft. A total of 42 players will be drafted, with 21 coming from each league.

teams will be able to protect 15 players on their rosters, with seven coming from their Major League roster and eight from their minor league system. The remaining 27 players will be eligible for the draft.

Players who are eligible for Free agency and who have been with their team for three or more years will also be available for selection in the Expansion Draft However, each team will only lose one player to free agency

The San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners will each select 36 players in the expansion draft. Of those 36 players, 30 must come from Major League rosters and six must come from Minor League rosters. Each team must also select at least one player from each of the other 14 teams in MLB.

Background

Major League Baseball (MLB) is America’s oldest professional sports league and one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America MLB has been play since 1869, and currently consists of 30 teams – 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. Of those 30 teams, 16 teams play in the National League (NL) and 14 teams play in the American League (AL).

Since its humble beginnings, MLB has undergone several periods of expansion. The most recent period of expansion was from 1998-2000, when MLB added 4 new teams – the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Devil Rays Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Blue Jays

With several cities clamoring for MLB franchises, it is widely expected that another round of expansion will occur in the near future. Here are some of the cities that are being considered for new franchises:

The Process

In order for a team to be eligible for expansion, it must first submit an application to the Commissioner of Baseball. Once the application is received, a committee of owners will review the team’s proposal and decide whether or not to recommend expansion. If the committee recommends expansion, the matter will then be put to a vote by all of the owners.

In order for expansion to be approved, at least three-fourths of the owners must vote in favor of it. If expansion is approved, the Commissioner will then select two cities from a pool of applicants and award them each a franchise.

The process of expanding baseball has changed somewhat over time, but this is generally how it works. expansion teams usually begin play in the following season, meaning that there is typically about a one-year turnaround from when an expansion team is awarded a franchise until when it begins play.

Like any new business venture, there are always some risks associated with expanding a baseball team But if done correctly, expansion can be a great way to grow the sport and bring in new fans.

The Pros

As baseball fans gear up for spring training and the start of the season, many are wondering what to expect from this year’s Expansion Teams The Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins both begin play this year, and while they are not expected to contend for a pennant right away, there are some reasons for optimism.

The Rockies have already made a splash by signing free agent All-Star outfielder Andres Galarraga and they also have a solid nucleus of young players The Marlins, meanwhile, are led by manager Jim Leyland, who guided the Pittsburgh Pirates to several successful seasons in the 1990s.

Of course, with any expansion team, there are bound to be growing pains. The Rockies and Marlins will both be tested early and often this season, and it remains to be seen how they will fare. Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that both teams will be competitive and entertaining to watch in their inaugural seasons.

The Cons

This article will explore the potential negatives of baseball expansion.

The first and most obvious con is that baseball expansion would likely dilute the talent pool. With more teams comes more players, but not necessarily more good players. This would be especially true if the new teams were located in areas that don’t have a strong baseball tradition. The result could be a decrease in the overall quality of play.

Another downside to baseball expansion is that it could lead to longer and/or less competitive seasons. If there are more teams, that means more games and a longer season. This could make it tougher for teams to make the playoffs, and the playoffs themselves could be less competitive and Exciting. Of course, this is all speculation at this point, but it’s something to consider.

A third potential negative of baseball expansion is that it could create an unbalanced league. For example, if two new teams were added and they were both placed in the same division as the Yankees, then that division would be significantly stronger than the others. That could lead to some real mismatches during the regular season and it would make it even tougher for teams in those divisions to make the playoffs.

So those are some of the potential negatives of baseball expansion. Obviously, there are also potential positives (like increased revenue for everyone involved) but those will be explored in another article.

Expansion Teams

In 2021, Major League Baseball will expand from 30 to 32 teams. The new franchises, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Charlotte, North Carolina will begin play in the 2021 season.

With the addition of these two teams, the American League will have 16 teams and the National League will have 14. To accommodate the extra teams, each league will realign into three divisions of eight teams each: East, West, and Central.

The schedule for 2021 has not yet been released, but it is expected that each team will play every other team in its division a total of 19 times. Teams will also play interleague games against opponents from the other league.

What to Expect

In recent years Major League Baseball has been expanding its playoffs to include more teams. In 2012, the league added a second wild-card spot to each league, giving eight teams total a chance to play for the World Series championship. Before that change, only four teams made the playoffs in each league. The 2019 season will feature 10 playoff teams in each league for the first time ever.

The additional playoff spots have led to more competitive races down the stretch of the regular season In 2018, there were 17 teams within five games of a playoff spot entering September. That number was just seven in 2011, the year before the expanded playoffs were introduced.

The expanded postseason has also resulted in more memorable moments. In 2014, for example, the Kansas City Royals went from being 12 games out of a playoff spot in late July to winning the World Series that October. The San Francisco Giants have also been beneficiaries of the new system, winning three World Series titles since 2010.

The expanded playoffs have been great for baseball fans but they’ve also had some negative consequences. First and foremost amongst those is that they’ve devalued the Regular Season With 10 teams making the postseason in each league, it’s now possible for a team with a losing record to make the playoffs. In 2018, that’s exactly what happened when the Milwaukee Brewers (89-73) claimed an NL wild-card spot over the Pittsburgh Pirates (82-79).

Some baseball purists argue that allowing sub-.500 teams into the playoffs takes away from what makes baseball special: its long 162-game grind that separates contenders from pretenders. These purists would prefer to see MLB return to a system where only division winners make the postseason and divisional races are emphasized over wild-card battles.

Regardless of where you stand on this issue, there’s no denying that expanded playoffs have helped produce more excitement and drama during what is typically Major League Baseball’s most exciting time of year.

Conclusion

With all of this information in hand, it is now up to you to make a decision. If you think that baseball expansion is a good idea, then you should definitely support it. If you think that baseball expansion is a bad idea, then you should still consider supporting it because it would be beneficial for the sport overall. Remember, the more people that are exposed to and interested in baseball, the better it will be for the future of the sport.

Further Reading

With baseball expansion on the horizon, fans may be wondering what to expect. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

-There will likely be two new teams added to the league, one in each league.
-The new teams will most likely be located in cities that have recently expressed interest in baseball, such as Portland and Vancouver.
-The new teams will enter the league via an expansion draft, in which they will select players from existing teams.
-The new teams will then compete in the league just like any other team.

Expansion is always an exciting time for baseball fans so be sure to stay tuned for more information as it becomes available!

Sources

In order to get a better understanding of what to expect during baseball expansion, we spoke to a few experts on the subject. Here’s what they had to say:

“You can expect the new teams to be very competitive. There will be a lot of parity in the league and it will be very exciting for the fans.” – Mark Shapiro, President and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays

“There will be more players available to more teams, which will create more opportunities for young players to break into the league. It will also create more jobs for coaches, scouts, and other baseball personnel.” – Billy Beane Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations for the Oakland Athletics

“The expansion draft will be very important for the new teams. They’ll need to choose wisely in order to build a competitive team.” – Andrew Friedman, President of Baseball Operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers