Yankees-Astros and 4 iconic MLB rivalries that could be lost thanks to Rob Manfred

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred dropped a bomb on the baseball world on Sunday night, when he mentioned during a seemingly innocuous interview at the Little League Classic that the league had its eye not just on expansion but also on a pretty profound realignment — one that would seemingly threaten the existence of the American and National Leagues in favor of Eastern and Western conferences.

It's been no secret that Manfred has wanted to expand the league from 30 to 32 teams, with Nashville in particular looming as a likely new market. But this would be a massive change for the sport, to put it mildly: The divisional structure that has existed since 1969 replaced by organizations of geographic convenience. And while you can understand why MLB would be interested in cutting down on cross-country trips, this proposal is still likely to extinguish some of the sport's best rivalries.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.

4. Mariners-Blue Jays

This one might not be on the national radar, but if you'd like to know just what these teams think of each other, take a look at what happened the last time they squared off:

Or the only time they've met in the postseason, a shocking Wild Card sweep that left Rogers Centre speechless.

They don't share a division, and the two cities are separated by thousands of miles. But while Seattle isn't particularly close to Toronto, it is very close to Canada, and Jays fans in and around Vancouver have made a habit of pouring over the border whenever the Jays come to T-Mobile Park over the years. That has bred plenty of discontent, and the last couple of years have only served to pour gasoline on the fire.

This is a perfect example of the sort of rivalry that wouldn't be able to flourish under Manfred's realignment, though. In an East/West setup, the Mariners and Jays would wind up in opposite leagues (or conferences) and hardly play each other at all. While most traditional divisional rivalries would be protected (though not all; more on that in a moment), we'd lose all the matchups that became bitter through circumstance and sheer spite.

3. Dodgers-Braves

If you can believe it, these two teams actually did share a division once upon a time, going at it in the NL West from the advent of divisional play in 1969 until the Wild Card era brought about the most recent round of realignment. Those scars still run deep for plenty of fans who remember pennant races of old — but there have been plenty of postseason showdowns in the years since that have kept the flame alive.

The first of them came back in 1996, when the Braves at the height of the Maddux/Smoltz/Glavine era swept L.A. out of the NLDS. Then, in 2013, the Dodgers got their revenge in a series that birthed one of the sport's instantly iconic memes: Craig Kimbrel, standing in the Dodger bullpen, watching Atlanta's lead in Game 4 of the NLDS unravel without him.

That was the first of what wound up being four playoff meetings in a nine-year span, including three in four years from 2018 to 2021. The Dodgers took the 2018 NLDS in four games and then won a classic seven-game NLCS in 2020, storming back from a 3-1 deficit en route to the franchise's first World Series title since 1988. The Braves would respond just a year later, though, taking the 2021 NLCS in six games before capturing a championship of their own.

These are two of the sport's most storied franchises, with a rivalry that dates back decades and has been forged in the fire of postseason showdowns. Under this new plan, though, it runs the risk of dying on the vine, without any sort of regular-season meetings to keep the animosity going. That is, unless we get another Freddie Freeman trade some time soon.

2. Reds-Cardinals

While most of the really important divisional matchups will remain intact (your Yankees-Red Sox, Cubs-Cardinals and Dodgers-Giants), MLB will have to draw its geographic line in the sand somewhere. In a division like the NL Central, that could spell trouble: While the Reds feel destined to wind up in the East, the Cardinals are more likely to land in the West given their relative proximity to Texas and other Southwestern teams.

Which is a shame, because these two teams really, really love to hate each other. Sure, it might not be Cubs-Cardinals, but these teams go way back, and they've managed to provide plenty of fireworks in recent years.

Cincinnati loves nothing more than to hate on the blue bloods in St. Louis. Just ask long-time Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips: "I'd play against these guys with one leg," he once said. "We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals … Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals."

Rest assured, the feeling is mutual. Tony La Russa even snubbed Phillips and Johnny Cueto from the NL All-Star team, so deep did the animosity run. But if Manfred gets his way, these teams will no longer call the same division or even the same conference home, going from hated rivals to mere acquaintances.

1. Yankees-Astros

Sure, plenty of West Coast teams would hate to lose their chance to get one over on the Yankees every year. But with all due respect to the Angels, Mariners, Dodgers and others, arguably no non-AL East rivalry runs deeper for New York than the one with the Astros.

We probably don't need to remind you how it began, with a contentious seven-game ALCS in 2017 that later became infamous due to Houston's sign-stealing scandal. They went on to meet two more times with a trip to the World Series on the line, with the Astros winning in both 2019 (thanks to a Jose Altuve homer off of Aroldis Chapman in Game 6) and 2022.

New York still hasn't forgiven the franchise for what it views as a surefire shot at a title, especially given how unapologetic Houston's key players have been about their role in the entire affair. While those wounds won't heal overnight, the rivalry would certainly lose some of its sting if the teams hardly played — and would no longer have to go through each other for a shot at the World Series.