MLB Realignment Shows Up on the Radar Once Again

Major League Baseball realignment is on the table again apparently. This newest realignment discussion might be a game-changer for baseball and could potentially create a situation where interleague games are being played every day.

According to ESPN, the current labor discussions have the owners open to an idea where there would be two 15-team leagues. Right now the American League has 14 teams and the National League has 16 teams, meaning one of the NL teams would be forced to move to the AL If this were approved, the most likely move would be to send the Houston Astros from the NL Central to the AL West. That would create six divisions of five teams each around the leagues.

The biggest problem with having a situation where there are 15 teams in each league is that the current way interleague play is done would come to an end. Rather than have specific times during the season where an AL team is playing an NL team, it would be taking place every day of the regular season. That would be the only way that MLB could make sure that every team gets to play roughly the same schedule through the year.

The MLB idea is similar to what takes place in the NBA right now, where every team plays every other team throughout the season. It removes most of the allure that is attached to the few interleague series that take play during the year, and basically tears down the whole meaning for having two different leagues. An inherent problem with this type of realignment though, is that baseball would have to seriously discuss what to do about the designated hitter rule.

It would certainly seem like this could be hard for a team like the Boston Red Sox to deal with. They have an All-Star designated hitter (David Ortiz) and first baseman (Adrien Gonzalez), but if they were playing in a National League park it would mean one couldn't play as the pitcher bats. It's a troublesome realization that the designated hitter would become nothing more than a "toy" to play with in American League parks, and that that particular player might get benched far too often.

Baseball is seriously considering going down a road that wouldn't help the game at all, even if it would balance out the teams in both leagues. This is not the way that baseball should be looking at realignment, and it's hard to understand why an initiative such as this one has received so much support in the first place.