St. Louis Cardinals: Anyone down for some radical realignment?

Most St. Louis Cardinals fans didn’t seem to be big fans of the Arizona plan for the 2020 season. In another solution, things get radical.

The last leaked proposal for how the St. Louis Cardinals season could potentially resume involved all players, coaches, and other influential personnel sequestering themselves all in Arizona where the spring training facilities, effectively trying to quarantine an entire county.

I was personally a fan of this idea. but like all of our chances at dating Selena Gomez, it was lacking in the feasibility department. Even if the players agreed to it, asking players with families to stay away from them for potentially four or more months without breaking quarantine was far fetched.

Without any inclusion of how media would still be able to do their jobs in this environment as well, that plan had too many holes.

However, Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote today about another proposal that has potential as well. As mythical as “radical realignment” sounds, it’s the title he used, and the changes fit the bill.

What the proposed plan would entail, at its core, is “eliminating” the traditional American and National league for this abbreviated season. Instead, the plan would have each team return to their spring training sites to play regular season games only in those two states (without fans of course).

Right off the bat, this sounds fun, different, and potentially exciting.

Teams who never get to face off in meaningful games could clash in a big way with this proposed plan. Classic rivalries could also fall apart. For example, the Cubs play their spring games in Arizona and would not be a team the Cardinals would play.

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Here is the proposed division that Nightengale writes as a possible option. The Cardinals would be in the “Grapefruit League East,” in a division including the Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins. Oof, tough draw.

That is just one option, but if it could work, this plan could work out well.

Another nugget, the DH would be universally enforced, and there could potentially be 14 playoff teams. The MLB is really trying to get all of their own agenda wrapped up in this it seems.

It’s clear the MLB is working through all possible plans which is better than the alternative. Nobody knows which plan will work, but the common themes are starting to become clear between all the ideas.

I think fans will be okay with however baseball looks when it comes back, as long as it does come back. The doomsday scenario of no baseball in 2020 is what everyone wants to avoid, so exceptions will be made. Radical realignment has my vote more than the Arizona idea did.