Good morning. Realignment is coming when expansion happens—probably in 2030. The issue is going to be whether or not the National and American League division survives.
- I wrote about this in Monday night’s “BCB After Dark”, but commissioner Rob Manfred dropped a trial balloon about “radical realignment” that would eliminate the National and American Leagues and replace them with an Eastern and Western conference.
- Bradford Doolittle takes a stab at what a new 32-team, four divisions of eight teams each MLB alignment would like. Also about how all this would work.
- Here’s an attempt to make an eight-divisions of four realignment.
- Matt Snyder is all for realignment—as long as the traditional National and American Leagues are preserved.
- Stephen J. Nesbitt manages to come up with a reasonable 8-division alignment that would (mostly) preserve the AL and the NL. (The Athletic sub. req.) His plan would only require the Rays and Rockies to switch leagues. It would leave the NL South as kind of weak, with the Braves, Rays, Marlins and an expansion team, however.
- Manfred also said that MLB is a “thriving” industry, so they naturally increased the amount of money their employees have to contribute to health insurance. (The Athletic sub. req.) Evan Drellich reports.
- Awful Announcing announced the results of their survey ranking all 30 MLB television local broadcast teams. I’m sure the Cubs/Marquee high ranking will be controversial around here, but then again, it would be controversial no matter where they were ranked.
- There’s been an report about a possible MLB agreement on the new television contracts. The report stresses that the deals are not finalized and could change, but NBC/Peacock would get Sunday and Friday Night Baseball, ESPN would buy MLB.tv, Netflix would get the Home Run Derby and Apple would be out.
- The Diamondbacks are doing damage control and star Ketel Marte has apologized after an article came out saying Marte’s teammates and the front office have been unhappy that he’s been taking time off in the middle of the season. Bob Nightengale reports.
- Here’s the actual article that started it all and came out last Thursday by D-Backs beat writer Nick Piecoro.
- Ketel Marte addressed the controversy. Steve Gilbert reports.
- The Mariners Victor Robles has been given a ten-game suspension for throwing a bat at a pitcher in a minor league rehab game. Robles is appealing. Daniel Kramer reports.
- Will Leitch has the teams that could break a long championship drought this year. Gotta say, after nine years it’s still weird not seeing the Cubs on such a list.
- David Schoenfield hands out some judgements on some big questions around playoff contenders.
- Ken Rosenthal says the Brewers recent success has a lesson for all the other teams.
- Phillies ace Zack Wheeler underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from his right arm.
- Jake Mintz speculates on what Wheeler’s recovery time will look like and what this means for Philadelphia.
- Jay Jaffe looks at the possible season-ending injuries to Wheeler and Astros closer Josh Hader and what it means for these two contenders.
- The Red Sox have signed recently DFA’d first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.
- Dan Szymborski examines why the Red Sox took a chance on Lowe.
- Jesse Rogers asks the teammates of Tigers ace Tarik Skubal and Pirates ace Paul Skenes as to what makes them the best pitchers in the game.
- David Adler has three ways Shohei Ohtani is a different pitcher now than in his days with the Angels.
- Esteban Rivera notes that Mets superstar Juan Soto’s defense is going downhill faster than expected. He also looks at exactly what is going wrong for Soto in the outfield.
- The Mets NL-record successful stolen base streak ended after a pickoff of Francisco Lindor.
- Ben Clemens looks at how Braves outfielder Michael Harris II has been one of the best hitters in baseball since the All-Star Break.
- Michael Rosen things Athletics pitcher Jacob Lopez is doing a solid Chris Sale impersonation on the mound.
- Michael Baumann argues for the Giants’ Logan Webb as underrated ace who does things differently.
- Sad news as the Giants announced the passing of their retired scout Lee Elder. Elder won three World Series rings as a scout with the Yankees in the nineties and then left for San Francisco in 2000 where he would win three more rings as a scout. Our condolences go out to Elder’s family, friends and the Giants.
- Mike Axisa looks at the unlikely and unsung heroes of the Blue Jays season.
- Gabe Lacques profiles Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber and his upcoming free agency.
- Five years ago, there was a deep drive to left by Castellanos in the middle of an apology and a meme was born. Sean Keeley has the history of that moment and how it has grown over the past five years.
- And finally, the Onion reports:
OK. It’s
The Onion.
