AL East Restructuring Would Restore Competitive Balance to Baseball

There are currently five teams in the American League East.  In most years, you are lucky to have two of them competing for the title. Every once in a while, you see an upstart team like Tampa Bay make a run at the division, and once in a very great while (like this past year), you may actually see a team take the title from the Yankees or Red Sox.

Ultimately, to allow the fans of those three franchises (Toronto, Baltimore, Tampa Bay) some minuscule hope of making the playoffs, MLB should change the American League East to a three-team division with the third team changing from year to year.  The two constants would be the Yankees and Red Sox.

With fans outside of Boston and New York clamoring for a salary cap, and little hope of that happening on the horizon, perhaps the time for a different solution is in order. 

Now, I don't expect this change to happen, nor do I necessarily endorse the change.  It's just a random thought that would try to keep the Red Sox and Yankees from continually controlling the AL East and leaving the other three teams constantly on the outside looking in. 

The Orioles, Blue Jays, and Rays could shuffle in and out of the AL East, and they could otherwise spend their time in the AL Central, NL Central, or the NL East.  Although scheduling would become more complicated, I'm sure MLB could find some computer program that could easily shift around the schedule to allow for a balanced schedule that sees the Yankees and Red Sox playing each other around 40 times a year. 

Maybe the rivalry loses some of its luster, but maybe a team like Baltimore and Toronto could make a run at the playoffs.  The Blue Jays have a talented roster, one that may have been able to compete if not for the treacherous schedule that befalls any member of the American League East. 

In the end, you could throw Toronto into the National League East once in a while, and do the same for the Orioles and Rays.  We already have interleague play, so the shock wouldn't be too severe.  It certainly wouldn't be as odd to see now, as it would have been 15 years ago.

I'm not sure that the rest of Major League Baseball (especially those members in the NL East, NL Central, and AL Central) would be excited about the idea, but maybe by increasing the number of times the Yankees and Red Sox play, the Wild Card will be out in the open and everyone else will have an increased shot at taking that avenue to the playoffs.

Or, we can just keep it the same, and that's probably for the best.  The spending is bound to cripple the Yankees eventually, and the Red Sox haven't been so out of control yet that they deserve to be punished so severely.