Last month, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred reignited a contentious debate by outlining his plans to overhaul the sport’s economic structure. According to Bruce Meyer, the second-in-command at the Major League Baseball Players Association, Manfred is pushing for a salary cap, a concept the players view with “the right amount of skepticism.” While other leagues like the NFL operate under a strict salary cap—set at $279.2 million per team for the 2025 season—MLB has famously operated without one. While the negotiations are ongoing on that front, Manfred has proposed another plan. This time the one that shakes the league’s structure.

“I think [expansion and realignment] are related, in my mind,” Manfred said Sunday on ESPN’s broadcast of the Little League Classic. “I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign. I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. And I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN, because you’d be playing out of the East and out of the West.” Again, NFL is the inspiration behind the idea. How?

In WFAN Radio Studio’s August 19 episode, Tommy Lugauer joined Tiki Barber to breakdown MLB’s realignment plans.

“Two weeks ago we were talking about salary caps in Major League Baseball. And we all know that NLF has a salary cap. And one of the reasons why franchise’s values collectively rising so high because they revenue share and you are only spending a certain amount of that revenue. Your are splitting 50/50, basically 49/51 with the players. That doesn’t happen in baseball. As a result the value of Major League Baseball franchise is half or probably more than half than it is in the NFL.” And now you are talking about regional divisions. NLF has northeast, south and west, right? That kind of sounded like what he[Rob Manfred] is talking about,” said Barber.

Lugauer, recalling Manfred’s statement on TV rights and how it aligns with NFL’s, said, “Rob also mentioned with the TV partners, and right now they’re negotiating for a new deal. I think that’s what it boils down to, is that they want, like you said, to be the NFL to be this TV powerhouse, and what way to do that is you regionalize it a little more.”

In 2021, the NFL signed a massive $113 billion media rights deal that spans 11 seasons, beginning in 2023. This agreement will provide the league with an annual revenue of over $10 billion, an increase of 80% compared to the $5.9 billion a year it was earning under its previous contracts. MLB, on the other hand, is negotiating broadcast packages with Netflix, ESPN, NBC and Apple.

In February, ESPN and Major League Baseball decided to end their partnership after the 2025 season. A $550 million-a-year deal. They will no longer broadcast Sunday Night Baseball games, the Home Run Derby and eight to 12 first-round playoff games per year.

It remains to be seen if salary cap and realignment pan out for MLB just like NFL. What do you think?