What might MLB expansion and realignment look like?

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred arrives on stage during the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony last month in Cooperstown, N.Y. AP

From a broadcast booth in Williamsport, Pa., MLB commissioner Rob Manfred stoked the flames of expansion talk Sunday night by saying adding two teams would give the league “an opportunity to geographically realign.”

That’s news when the commissioner says it publicly, but impending realignment has not been a closely guarded secret. Expanding to 32 clubs would necessitate some reshuffling, the most likely of which would be moving to eight divisions of four teams apiece.

When The Athletic ’s Jim Bowden redrew division lines in 2023, he imagined Manfred ditching the American and National League labels altogether and adopting Eastern and Western Con