A local politician wants more Braves road games at renovated Tropicana Field and a future Rays stadium Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Tampa Bay Area Politician Wants Braves in Division with Rays

Originally posted on Atlanta Braves on SI
By Harrison Smajovits | Last updated Aug 18, 2025 3:00 PM ET

MLB Commissioner sparked divisional realignment commotion when he talked about expansion during a Sunday Night Baseball interview.

What the new division could look like is up in the air, but one Tampa Bay Area politician is making his desires known that he wants the Rays grouped in with the Atlanta Braves.

Pinellas County commissioner Chris Latvala posted a screenshot on X (formerly Twitter) of a hypothetical division that included the Braves, Rays, Marlins and a potential expansion team in Nashville. This division is labeled as the Southeast division.

Latvala captioned it “sign me up,” and then added the Rays hashtag.

Sign me up. #raysup pic.twitter.com/meELai7gpH
— Chris Latvala (@ComChrisLatvala) August 18, 2025

This screenshot was taken from a graphic posted by The Athletic on Monday morning. The hypothetical realignment came from an article written by Jim Bowden in 2023.

In Bowden's scenario, the American League and National League are scrapped and replaced with an Eastern and Western Conference akin to what the NBA and NHL have.

Eliminating two historical leagues is a scenario that would make a lot of fans - and even players, media and executives - skin crawl. However, there is a scenario where you can create this division and not completely torpedo history.

Nashville is a National League expansion team, and the Rays would move over from the American League. The other hypothetical team in the expansion goes to Charlotte. They can move over to the American League, so each league gets an additional team that brings them to 16. Of course, to keep them even, a current National League team moves to the American League.

That's as far as this hypothetical will go.

Latvala doesn't elaborate on why he would be on board with this alignment, but there are some clear assumptions that can be made.

The first is this creates from strong geographic rivalries that none of the MLB teams involved have really had - with the exception of the Braves and Marlins. Most division rivals for the Braves are up in the northeast, and the same goes for the Rays (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc). The Rays even have a division rival up in Canada (Blue Jays).

Another major reason is the nearby brand. The Rays would lose being in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox, but they would gain being with another national brand, the Braves.

Due to proximity, there are a lot of Braves fans in Florida, similar to how there are plenty of Floridians who pull for the Yankees, Phillies, Mets and Red Sox.

Those, like Latvala, who are hoping to bring more eyes and dollars to Pinellas County aren't going to hate the idea of attracting fans from nearby markets.