2 days ago
After radical realignment, Yankees, Mets fans will have to ‘relearn who they hate and who they love'
If Major League Baseball undergoes radical realignment and puts the Yankees and Mets in the same division down the road, their fans will have to 'relearn who to love and who to hate' in terms of opposing teams.
That's what Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay believes will have to happen after the traditional American and National Leagues go by the wayside under Commissioner Rob Manfred's plan.
Fans 'are going to have to relearn who they hate and who they love,' Kay said Monday on his ESPN radio show. 'So Mets fans hate the Braves, now would you even waste time hating the Braves?'
Expansion likely wouldn't happen until 2028 or 2029, but Yahoo Sports mapped out how the new potential divisions would look:
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
Kay's larger point was that if the NL East ceases to exist, the Mets would lose some traditional rivals like the Braves, although the Phillies would remain in the new East Division.
The Yankees would still have the Red Sox (with whom they have a huge four-game series this weekend) in their division, but would no longer have natural rivalries with the Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays.
'The National League and the American League, as you know it, if all this comes to pass, is going to cease to exist,' Kay said. 'So the rivalries that you've seen built up, they're going to be gone will be the Blue Jays if you're a Yankee fan, gone will be Tampa Bay. All of that, forget about it. Wouldn't exist.'
Kay also pointed out that the new East Division would include many of the largest payrolls in baseball - and that, every year, some of them would not make the postseason, depending on how the Wild Card format is set up.
'And now you have the Mets and the Yankees, two of the behemoths in the sport, in the same division,' Kay said. 'So Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Phillies, those are four of the top eight payrolls in baseball in one division. So you can have two teams probably that get knocked out of the postseason that might have payrolls north of $300 million.'
He added: 'Now, in Manfred's perfect world, by that time there's going to be a salary cap so everybody's going to be on equal footing, so these divisions will not be laden with the highest payroll teams, so that would equal things out a little bit, but we are a long way from getting the salary cap that everyone's dreaming of.'
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.
Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter and Basketball Insider for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at
