MLB Realignment may not change much for the Astros

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred wants to expand to 32 teams, but that may be years away. Still, there's a lot of speculation about realignment.

SportsTalk 790's Matt Thomas says Portland and Charlotte are the cities most likely to get expansion teams.

"They wanna get the situation resolved in both Tampa Bay and the Oakland area for stadiums, so I don't think there'll be any serious conversation about expansion until those two cities get their stadiums resolved."

Thomas says realignment shouldn't change much for the Astros.

"Anything involving the Astros will definitely involve the Texas Rangers because that's been the one good thing about the Astros going to the American League is, you play our friends from Arlington 19 times a season."

Thomas says San Antonio is a possible, but not likely, expansion target. The Astros' and Rangers' owners will have to weigh in on whether they want the competition -- and it may not be feasible.

"I don't think economically, from a corporate standpoint, that San Antonio probably could sponsor 81 home games per year with a very, very big payroll and on top of the fact they'd have to build a stadium because the Alamo Dome just cannot be converted, effectively, for baseball."

Some believe MLB would like to expand and shorten the season at the same time, but again, this is probably years away.


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