MLB’s Big Ideas Meet a Harsh Reality

FIRST PITCH

The Commish

Rob Manfred sounds like a commissioner with a lot left to do.

With three years left before he plans to walk away, the MLB commissioner spoke this week about the game’s future — not in hypotheticals, but in concepts. Split seasons. An in-season tournament. Expansion. Realignment.

Manfred said MLB will expand by two teams — and that will open the door to bigger structural change, including the most controversial idea of all: realignment.

He wants to reshape the league along geographic lines, potentially eliminating the American and National Leagues as we’ve known them for more than 125 years, replacing them with East–West leagues.

Eight divisions. Four teams each.

The justification is travel.
162 games in 186 days.
Time zones.
Red-eyes.
Wear and tear.
The travel grind is real, and the league knows it.

In his interview on WFAN’s The Carton Show, Manfred:

• Downplayed labor tension, suggesting the media is “rushing to negativity,” while acknowledging major issues need to be addressed.
• Pushed the idea of a free-agent deadline.
• Promised broadcast stability, saying MLB will step in to broadcast games if local TV partners fail.

He floated having split seasons and an in-season tournament — something like the NBA Cup — despite obvious hurdles.

Big ideas. Manfred’s never been short on those, with the pitch clock, the ghost runner, and now ABS, stamped with his name.

But behind all of it sits the elephant in the room: labor. The current CBA runs out in 2026, and Manfred insists there’s still time to work out a deal before things turn adversarial.

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Maybe there is — but when commissioners start floating deadlines, formats, and structural change all at once, the clock’s usually louder than they’re letting on.

Everyone in the sport knows what 2027 could look like.

Box

THE GOOD

Field of Dreams

This offseason, Julio Rodríguez went back to where it all began.

In his hometown of Loma de Cabrera, the Seattle Mariners star opened the first-ever public astroturf baseball field in the Dominican Republic, where his baseball life began — a $1.3 million, state-of-the-art complex built for the next generation of kids dreaming of following in his footsteps.

“This field is where everything started for me,” Rodríguez said.

Three baseball fields.
Batting cages.
Bullpens.
Lights.

Not a gesture.
A foundation.

Funded through his No Limits Foundation, Rodríguez brought modern facilities back to the place where he took his first swings.

Fellow MLB stars Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Fernando Tatis Jr. showed up in support.

A field of dreams — built where one dream has already come true.

THE BAD

The Athletics?

The A’s were denied the right to trademark “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Vegas Athletics” this week.

Not because the name lacks history — it’s been around since 1901 — but because the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office deemed Athletics too generic, too easily confused, too vague once dropped into Vegas.

That’s a problem.

Because the entire relocation pitch has been built on momentum: new city, new stadium, new money, new era.

And yet, here we are — the Athletics preparing to move without even knowing what they’ll legally be called when they arrive.

The move to Las Vegas keeps feeling less like a plan and more like a series of approvals.

Approved for public funding.
Approved for a temporary exile in Sacramento.
Approved for a stadium set to open in 2028.

But clarity?
Ownership of the brand?
A clean handoff from past to future?

Not yet.

This is a franchise that carried its identity from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland without blinking.

Now, in the biggest, flashiest relocation of them all, that identity is suddenly up for debate.

They’re signing players.
They’re selling optimism.
They’re asking fans — old and new — to believe this time will be different.

For a franchise founded in 1901, the Athletics are heading to Vegas without an identity.

And it’s hard to sell a future when you don’t even own the name.

THE UGLY

When the Money Stops Showing Up

Baseball’s relationship with regional sports networks just got murkier.

Nine Major League Baseball teams have walked away from their cable deals.

All at once.

The Braves.
Reds.
Tigers.
Royals.
Angels.
Marlins.
Brewers.
Cardinals.
Rays.

That’s nearly a third of the league pulling the ripcord amid financial instability, missed payments, and the looming collapse of FanDuel Sports Network.

MLB promises the games will still be shown. In fact, the league is already producing local broadcasts for several teams after the Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy.

Which means more than half the league is now operating without the local TV certainty it once relied on.

For years, local TV wasn’t a bonus — it was the backbone. Roughly 25 percent of team revenue, locked in, predictable, budgetable. That’s what owners planned payrolls around. That’s what made long-term deals possible.

Now? It’s gone. Or unstable enough to walk away from.

But access isn’t the problem.

Revenue is.

And the impact is immediate.

Payrolls tighten.
Free-agent spending slows.
Risk tolerance disappears.

Meanwhile, clubs with massive, secure TV money keep operating like nothing changed. The Dodgers, with a RSN deal that brings in $334 million a year, can absorb a $169 million luxury tax and barely flinch.

That’s not attitude.

That’s infrastructure.

The ugly truth is that baseball didn’t suddenly become unfair.

It just stopped hiding it.

Let’s be clear: this doesn’t let cheap owners off the hook.

But when teams suddenly lose a quarter of their revenue, “just spend” stops being a choice.

It becomes financial reality.

ONE FOR THE ROAD

Baseball Beyond the Border

The offseason is supposed to be simple.
Go home.
See family.
Reset.

For some Venezuelan major leaguers, this winter hasn’t gone as planned.

After a U.S. military operation in Venezuela led to flight suspensions, commercial air travel ground to a halt. The Venezuelan Winter League paused its playoffs amid the uncertainty.

Players who went home for the holidays suddenly found themselves stuck — or scrambling.

Teams checked in. Players found workarounds. Some drove across borders just to catch flights out. Others waited, uncertain but patient.

Quietly, baseball adjusted — like it always does.

There were 63 Venezuelan-born players on MLB rosters for Opening Day 2025, making Venezuela the second-biggest source of international talent after the Dominican Republic.

This wasn’t about missed reporting dates or roster drama. It was a reminder of how global the game really is — and how quickly “normal” can disappear for players whose lives stretch beyond one country and one calendar.

We talk about offseason downtime like it’s universal.
For some players, just getting back to work isn’t that easy.

John Boxley
High N Tight