MLB Oakland Athletics: How Does AL West Realignment Affect the Organization?

The Oakland A’s have certainly had a lot to concentrate on this offseason. Player movements and free agency, coaching changes and, of course, some drama about a new stadium deal in San Jose. All these things have affected their interest in solidifying a team for next season and beyond.

But what may not have been particularly high on their list of short-term concerns was the inclusion of another team in their division. Somewhat out of nowhere—outside of baseball, mostly—the A’s have found themselves staring at another divisional opponent in 2013. Great—more things the A’s have to worry about in the upcoming few seasons.

Earlier this week, the deal to sell Houston Astros to new owner Jim Crane was finalized. The stipulation by Major League Baseball was that the Astros would, sooner rather than later, switch leagues and move to the American League West—the only four-team division in baseball. As a result, each league (15) and each division (5) would then have an equal number of teams.

With an odd number of teams in each league, the modification by MLB would be to sprinkle interleague series throughout the entire season, not just a solitary month-long period, as it currently is set up.

This is great for baseball as a whole, in their attempt to succumb to the pressures of the other major North American sports by integrating the two-league (or conference) structure. But from a more micro, local perspective, it harms the Athletics and their attempt to be relevant in the upcoming couple of seasons.

The A’s already have a difficult time winning a division with the fewest opponents as it is. Adding a fifth team obviously reduces the percentage of winning the West to 20 percent. But it also has ramifications far beyond mere numbers. It’s like having another sibling at the dinner table to tussle with for food servings at Thanksgiving.

Oakland already has to fly to Texas to face the Rangers for up to three series on the road. Now they will likely have a couple more two-time-zone flights to deal with an additional team out “West” in Houston. Not a big deal on the surface; but you wonder if MLB thought long and hard about having their only two Texas franchises now belonging to the same division. It sort of doesn’t make sense.

Worse for A’s fans is the lack of excitement the Astros will generate when they come into Oakland. Not only was the AL West one of the most lethargically dull division races in recent memory, boasting the second-worst team in the AL (Seattle) as well as the team with the worst attendance in baseball (Oakland), the West just got wilder with the addition of the team with the worst record in all of baseball—Houston. Hooray.

The only somewhat interesting prospect is the ballpark factor of Houston’s Minute Maid Park. Last season, the Astros’ stadium yielded the seventh-highest home run rate in the Majors. Naturally, the Astros’ pitchers had something to do with that. But hopefully the A’s bombers of _____, _____ and _____ can take advantage.

Still, having realignment and postseason adjustments in 2013 sheds light on the fact that the A’s own stadium issues are further down the totem pole of importance. The annexing of another team only adds to the Athletics’ woes of building a contending team in the next two or three or four seasons.

Even if they do move from Oakland to San Jose, the team as a whole will struggle to stay out of the cellar, contending with another team to see who is the best of the worst.

The A’s have suggested they will save their money in order to invest in the new furnishings of their new home. At which point, they’ll likely be fielding a group of minor leaguers at the major-league level.

But, if the Athletics don’t have their stadium issues resolved anytime soon, then they won’t have to worry (as much) about their Silicon Valley décor and can concentrate on their free agent spending in Oakland.

They can also start planning for those nail-biting and highly marketable Athletics-Astros series when Houston comes into town.