How Blue Jays may be impacted by Rob Manfred's realignment comments

Although MLB have made changes to their division alignment over the years, the Toronto Blue Jays have always played in the American League East since they first joined MLB in 1977. The Blue Jays have won the AL East six times in their franchise history, while 2025's squad has a chance to make it seven and the first since 2015.

In the MLB, there's six total divisions with three in each league and there have been some recent talks about a possible realignment of those divisions. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred hinted about the potential realignment during during Sunday night's Little League Classic on ESPN, which featured the Seattle Mariners and New York Mets.

Manfred mentions a potential division with both Yankees and Mets in it

Manfred pointed to being more "geographically aligned" could save wear and tear on the players, and the postseason format would be more appealing - but didn't expand on those specific comments. Meantime he directly mentioned Blue Jays' current division rivals, the New York Yankees, as a team who could end up with some new "geographic rivals" within this new format - hinting that the Yankees and their cross-town rivals, the Mets, could end up in the same division.

If Manfred puts the Yankees and Mets in the same division for realignment purposes, the Blue Jays would likely need to be in a new division, and it could end up being with both the Yankees and Mets.

When looking at it geographically, the Yankees and Mets, playing in the State of New York, are close enough to Toronto to make that division make sense. That leaves two open spots for a five-team division with the current six-division, 30 team league format.

The two teams that would make the most sense from a geographic standpoint would be the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies. Boston is close enough for both New York teams and Toronto to travel to, and the same for Philadelphia. These cities are also closer than the other current East division teams: Baltimore, Washington, Tampa Bay, Miami and Atlanta

One thing MLB would need to do to keep the intensity is have the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry in the same division. The same can also be said with the Mets and Phillies for the hatred that goes on between Philadelphia and New York.

The Blue Jays would get to continue their rivalry-relationship with two teams that have been in their division since 1977 in the Yankees and the Red Sox, while they would get to have a rematch with the team they beat in their 1993 World Series victory more often if they played in the same division with the Phillies. The Blue Jays also have some history with the Mets, as they have made some big trades with each other over the years including the Blue Jays getting David Cone in 1992, Tony Fernandez in 1993, and the infamous R.A. Dickey-Noah Syndergaard trade back in 2012.

There's also history between the other teams to make the division happen. The Yankees defeated the Phillies in the 2009 World Series, and the Mets defeated the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series.

More division realignment talks will likely take place as the next collective bargaining agreement comes up. For now, it's clear one of the main goals will be for MLB's two New York teams to play in the same division which will have some kind of impact on the Blue Jays as well.