Ninth-inning duties may be too much for Devin Williams with Yankees
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
How MLB's regional realignment could end historic rivalries
The American League and National League have been institutions in baseball for more than 120 years. If MLB has expansion in the coming years, it's expected those leagues could be totally reimagined to break up baseball's league and division infrastructure as we know it going forward. The New York Yankees and Mets could be in the same division. Same goes for the Chicago Cubs and White Sox. With the universal DH now well-established, radical realignment is likely coming to MLB over the next decade. Baseball insiders have whispered about the possibility of regional-based realignment for a few years. MLB commissioner Rob Mandred was asked directly about it on Sunday night during an ESPN broadcast, and didn't shy away from his next bold rules change. Manfred said expansion and realignment are intertwined, and offered the biggest insight yet into what baseball could look like in the future. 'I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign. I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. And I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN because you'd be playing out of the east and out of the west. And now that 10 o'clock time slot, where we sometimes get Boston-Anaheim, it would be two West Coast teams in that 10 o'clock slot.' 'I think the owners realize that there is demand for Major League Baseball in a lot of great cities, and we have an opportunity to do something good around that expansion process.' Nashville and North Carolina have been the hottest candidates for expansion, but it's not rumored to happen until 2028 or 2029. Expansion still seems pretty far away at this point with nothing concrete about potential new markets, but if MLB has it their way, it will trigger widespread divisional realignment. Imagine MLB's divisions look something like this: East: Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Phillies North: Blue Jays, Tigers, Guardians, Pirates Mid-Atlantic: Orioles, Nationals, Braves, North Carolina team South: Rangers, Astros, Rays, Marlins Great Lakes: Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Twins Midwest: Royals, Cardinals, Reds, Nashville Southwest: Dodgers, Angels, Padres, Diamondbacks West: Rockies, A's, Giants Mariners This isn't exactly perfect and is more of a rough draft. Manfred has already instituted a couple radical ideas in his time as commissioner. The pitch clock has been an unmitigated success, and feels like one of the best sports rule changes in a while. Opinions may very on baseball's decision to put a runner at second base in extra innings, make the bases bigger (and easier to steal), and expand the playoffs. At first blush, I don't like the look of realignment at all. It would be wrong to break up the Cubs and Cardinals from the same division, for example. Maybe the AL and NL don't really mean anything anymore now that everyone plays with the DH, but this change still feels too radical for my taste. Still, the pitch clock was such a good idea that it proves big changes can work in baseball. Change is likely coming to baseball again, like it or not. This really feels like Manfred's boldest plan yet.
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
What's stoking hopes of Yankees surge at crucial moment
After getting some important aspects of their skidding team straightened out in St. Louis, the Yankees suddenly enter an important week against AL East rivals with a chance to look ahead and not behind them in the playoff standings. A three-game sweep of the Cardinals featured some encouraging signs for Aaron Boone and the Yankees, helping extend their breathing room in the AL wild-card race to 3 ½ games after Cleveland was swept over the weekend by the Braves. That cushion is now three games after the Guardians won Monday night in Arizona. After the renewed oddity of using the visiting clubhouse and dugout at their Tampa spring-training facility (Steinbrenner Field) in two games with the Rays — as they did in the first road series of the year between the teams in April — the Yankees will get the chance to overtake the Red Sox in the postseason pecking order with a massive four-game set at the Stadium beginning Thursday night. Advertisement Then the rivals only will square off again in a three-game stop at Fenway Park in mid-September to complete the 13-game season series.
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
The Red Sox have given the Yankees something to prove — this is the week to do it
The Red Sox and Yankees can never deliver the historic version of The Rivalry again. What accentuated the feud from Boston selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees on Dec. 26, 1919, through 2003 was the Red Sox not winning championships as the Yankees became the predominant team in baseball. Once Boston rallied from 0-3 down in the 2004 ALCS to end The Curse against the Yankees and ultimately win its first championship since Ruth's last Red Sox season in 1918, the element that most fueled the intensity of The Rivalry — could the Yankees forever be Lucy pulling the football away from the Red Sox's Charlie Brown? could they forever play goal line defense against Boston to keep it out of the championship end zone (forgive two football analogies, please)? — vanished. Advertisement The games the two teams played in the regular season in 2003-04 had the drama and intensity of a World Series, and their playoff games were like scripted epic miniseries. The teams played 52 games over those two seasons, and the Red Sox went 27-25. Each team won a seven-game ALCS against the other. It was holy war as baseball.
