77 Hitmen

Over two seasons?

Yep, when was the last time a Sox GM ever worked in MLB again? 30 years ago? Same with managers. Ozzie's the last one after he walked out on the team because he already had another job lined up and then crashed and burned after only 1 season in Miami. Nobody since then. Before that, Jerry Manuel went on to manage the Mets after he was fired after the 2003 season.

....and then back to Chicago after that. Perhaps Manfred needs examples of ridiculous travel schedules to help him achieve his dream of abolishing the American League and National League.

I wonder where the Marlins franchise goes from here. The A's and Rays have their own debacles, but they'll both likely end up with new ballparks in a few years. The Marlins already got their shiny new (2012) ballpark and their attendance still has been at the bottom of the league by far for years when not counting the Rays and A's.

As was discussed in the broadcast team thread, Jerry's franchise is good at ranking 27th in the league for various things.

I'd be shocked if Ishbia is spending around $2B to buy a franchise only to keep a bunch of incompetent clowns in charge of operating the team. He's not an idiot - he knows the Sox are losing market share and have struggled with anemic attendance and waning interest for years. He's also not going to starting throwing money at high priced free agents when the team's management is incapable of evaluating and developing talent.

He's also not, at age 89, going to suddenly start hiring competent people over loyalists to run this organization after decades of not doing so.

And they didn't have back to back playoff appearances until 2021. They were the last American League team to do this. Every expansion team had managed to have back to back playoffs before the Sox. I'm not sure if any NL team has failed to make the playoffs in back to back seasons.

For anyone who is tempted to think that 3 playoff appearances during this time isn't all that bad, as far as I can tell there are only 2 MLB teams that have had FEWER playoff appearances during this span: the Mariners and the Marlins. Unless I'm missing someone, THAT'S IT. At least the Mariners are ascendant and are likely to make the playoffs this year. Two other teams, like the Sox, have made the playoffs 3 times since 2007 - the Pirates and Padres. The Padres have really turned their franchise around beginning around the same time as Rick and Kenny's failed rebuild with all 3 of their playoff appearances being since 2020 and they'll almost certainly will make the playoffs for a 4th time this year. So, to affirm - Jerry Reinsdorf's team has been REALLY BAD compared to just about every other MLB team over nearly 2 decades and continues to be really bad. The only other teams I can say that about are the Marlins and Pirates.

....and of those 5 winning seasons, many were with underachieving teams. In 2008, they blew a 6 game division lead and needed the Black Out Game to salvage the division title. In 2020, they choked away a 3 game division lead with about 2 weeks left to play and had to settle for the wild card. In 2021, they played only .500 ball in the 2nd half. Plus, in 2 of the 3 playoff appearances, they were totally outclassed by their opponent in the first round. The series wasn't even close. And Jerry wants taxpayers to build him a new stadium as a reward for this incompetence.

The only good thing Jerry has done in the last 15 years is to line up a local billionaire to be the next team owner. But even with that he's dragging it out to as late as 2034.

I think the Rockies are ineligible for the #1 pick just like the Sox were despite losing 121 games last year.

Unfortunately, it sure looks that way. The universal DH was probably inevitable anyway, but the "play every single team from the opposite league every single year" scheduling is a good way for them to try to make the AL and NL as entities appear irrelevant. But IMO, it'll be a very sad day for baseball if/when Manfred succeeds in this plan just so that the league, which has $12B in revenue, can save some travel money. Oh, they might keep the AL and NL names and make them geographical based, but any world where, for example, the White Sox are an NL team and the Dodgers are an AL team would render the names meaningless. You may as well call them Western and Eastern Conferences at that point.

My guess is that the Cubs/Sox matchups will become boring if there's something like 12 games (or more) every year. Two series per year (one at each park) is probably optimal. Double (or more) the number of crosstown games and I bet the Sox wouldn't even sell out all of them. Ask many true Cubs fan and they'll say the team they hate the most is the Cardinals.

Don't give Jerry any ideas.

No doubt about it. And guess which ballpark Brewers and Cardinals fans are going to want to visit when their team comes to Chicago? Plus, thanks to their WGN superstation history, the Cubs have a huge following in the Midwest outside of Chicagoland and the Sox most certainly do not. Maybe if Ishbia decides to bankroll a new stadium at the 78, the Sox will have a fighting chance to draw well during times that they aren't winning pennants and to build a broader fan base, but we have a whole other thread discussing that. Regardless, I'm very strongly against abolishing the AL and NL and lumping the Cubs and Sox into the same division.

I don't see MLB clustering both expansion teams in the Southeast. Perhaps one of Charlotte OR Nashville, but not both. Also, for all the breathless talk about Nashville, it's very questionable they'd provide a lot of public money to a MLB stadium after they just spent a fortune on the new Titans stadium. As far as I know, only two cities/states are committing lots of money toward a MLB stadium: Salt Lake City and Portland. Plus, I'd imagine MLB would want one of the expansion teams to go out west in either the Pacific or Mountain time zones and a place with some proximity to the west coast teams. If they put a team in Portland, that would be 8 MLB teams in the Pacific time zone, enough to fill a 4-team NL West and AL West.

I like the idea of the Cubs and Sox (as well as Yankees/Mets and Dodgers/Angels) having their own set of regional rivals and not just sharing the same two other teams as rivals. Group us with Milwaukee and St. Louis and that leaves Detroit and Minnesota out in the cold. Long-term, one concern is that having both Chicago teams lumped in the same division would make the White Sox seem superfluous to the Cubs as far has having a MLB presence in Chicago. Chicago is not a 2-team city like NY or LA (which have 2 teams in each of the major sports). We have 2 MLB teams only because it's relic of a bygone era. To make matters worse, we have one MLB team that always draws well through good seasons and bad and another team that always seems to struggle to draw fans unless they win the World Series.

There sure seems to be a lot of things that the White Sox are ranked around 27th on compared to other teams. That's a Reinsdorf-run organization for you.

and the MLB Players Union will never agree to it in a million years. No way in hell they'd agree to jettison 30 starting lineup positions (DH).

If Manfred & Co. come to their senses and keep the AL and NL and they expand to 32, here's one possible idea of how to create 4-team divisions that have reasonable geography: American League West: Seattle, LA Angels, Las Vegas, Portland (expansion) South Central(?): Texas, Houston, KC, Colorado (moved to AL) Central: Sox, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland East: NYY, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore National League West: SF, LAD, SD, AZ South: TB (moved to NL), Miami, Atlanta, Nashville/Charlotte (expansion) Central: Cubs, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincy East: NYM, Philly, Washington, Pittsburgh

I'd agree, but tell that to Manfred. He'll take their $900M stadium and run - subsequent attendance problems be damned. Remember, this is the guy who wants to totally eliminate the National League and American League just because he's worried that people won't tune into Peacock to watch a Boston vs. Anaheim wild card series. If they're going to add one expansion team out west, I'd like to see Portland get it. They're offering public money for a stadium, too - though not as much as SLC. Those Portland ballpark renderings look fantastic.

As far as a western expansion team, there's also Portland since the State of Oregon has approved $800M in funding for a new MLB stadium. Their renderings of a waterfront stadium look pretty cool IMO. https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/17/oregon-lawmakers-pass-dollar800-million-bill-for-portland-mlb-stadium/ Portland geographically would help with Seattle's isolation from the next closest major league city (San Francisco?) and could create an entire 4-team division within the Pacific time zone along with the Angels and A's if the whole concept of the AL isn't being nuked. I'd imagine Austin or San Antonio are being considered since each metro areas have a decent number of people and are booming. But like you said, two teams in the 3rd most populous state (Florida) isn't working.

I expect him to put an expansion team in Salt Lake City since Utah is offering $900M in public funding for a new stadium, even though it's only the 46th largest metro area in the US.

I hope there never comes a day when MLB totally destroys the National League and American League as entities. It would be such a Manfred move, though. Welcome to World Series match ups between the Western Conference and Eastern Conference champs! Please, Dear God, no. I'd also be very surprised if MLB decides to make their 2 expansion teams in Charlotte AND Nashville. Too close to each other and they'd both carve up the Braves' existing fan base area.