A's Fans Should be Thrilled with Realignment Prediction

Major League Baseball's inevitable expansion and subsequent realignment has been a topic of much discussion this week, but it's being talked about very generally. Part of the reason for that is that we don't know many specifics, and lacking key details, all we're left to do is speculate about the future of the sport.

What we know is that Baseball will be expanding at some point, presumably in the next decade. When that happens, there will be 32 teams in the League, and that will provide an opportunity to make the divisions more closely align with where the teams are geographically located. That in turn will limit the amount of travel that needs to be done for a number of clubs.

The way things are currently set up, both the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros are in the AL West. That means that the A's and Seattle Mariners have to travel halfway across the country for divisional matchups. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees get a crisp flight to Boston or any of their own divisional opponents.

The key factor that we don't know just yet is how many teams will be in each division when realignment does happen. The debate is basically between four eight-team divisions, and eight four-team divisions. One would presumably keep the American and National Leagues alive (4x8), while more teams per division would negate the need for anything besides East and West.

The reason for that being that all of the west coast teams would be in one division, meaning the Dodgers, Giants, Padres, Diamondbacks, as well as the A's, Angels, Mariners, and an expansion team. Would that be an AL or NL division? Probably best just to start from scratch.

In the eight four-team divisions, AL/NL pride and tradition could still exist, though there isn't much that distinguishes the two leagues these days. It would also mean that there would have to be some minor movement from league-to-league. What is important, however, is that baseball is a sport build upon history, and just throwing aside over a century of it wouldn't be an ideal outcome.

So what does realignment mean for the A's?

Over at The Athletic, they took a crack at figuring out which teams would populate the eight new divisions, and the A's may have lucked out big time. They are slotted with the Angels, Mariners, and the expansion team, projected to be in either Portland or Salt Lake City at this time.

They would be dropping both the Astros and Rangers from their regular schedule, and their biggest obstacle towards the postseason every year--at least with with recent history as our guide--would be the Mariners.

This is great for two reasons. First, Seattle has made the postseason once since 2001, losing in the ALDS. They currently have a hold of the final Wild Card spot, which could make it two times in 24 years. The other reason for optimism is that their GM said two years ago that the team's goal is to win 54% of the time on a consistent basis.

That's an 87.5 win season they're aiming for, which is certainly an admirable goal, but it's also not a juggernaut club. That bodes well for the A's.

The Angels and A's had some huge battles for the division early on this century, but the Angels have pretty much stopped making the postseason s ince Mike Trout got to town, and they haven't had a winning record since 2015. That also bodes well for the green and gold.

The expansion team is the wild card here, because we don't even know where they'll be located, let alone who will be running the front office, what kind of an owner they'll have, or who will fill their roster. That said, it typically takes at least a few seasons for a new team to reach contention, which will buy the A's a little time.

By the time expansion and realignment actually take place, the A's current rookie group will be veterans in the league, so there is no telling what their own roster makeup will be by that time either. Plenty can change across the landscape of baseball by the time this change is enacted, but from where the pieces lay today, the projected division for the A's could lead to plenty of October baseball.