Another realignment idea: What if new baseball divisions were based on market size?

Commissioner Rob Manfred caused a bit of a stir recently when he said during an ESPN telecast that expansion and realignment could be on the table soon.

That led to a number of suggestions and ideas about what baseball's league and divisional structure might look like in the future, with geography and traditional rivalries driving much of that discussion.

But there's another factor that in theory can be used to reorganize the sport: market size.

With a collective bargaining fight looming, competitive balance — and how to improve it — is likely to be a major point of contention. If owners pursue a salary cap, that could lead to particularly nasty negotiations and even the possibility of a work stoppage. But what if you could achieve greater competitive balance through realignment — by having two divisions of large-market franchises and two of small-market teams?

Consider the following proposal, which attempts to divide teams into geographic conferences, with divisions based mostly on market rankings from baseball's current collective bargaining agreement. Let's assume for the sake of this exercise that the new expansion teams would be in Nashville and Salt Lake City — and we'll start both of them in a small-market division.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Big Market Division: Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays, Nationals, Phillies, Red Sox, Braves, Twins

Small Market Division: Rays, Tigers, Marlins, Orioles, Guardians, Cardinals, Pirates, Reds

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Big Market Division: Angels, Dodgers, Cubs, White Sox, Giants, Rangers, Astros, Mariners

Small Market Division: Athletics, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Padres, Royals, Brewers, Nashville, Salt Lake City

The top three teams in each division could make the postseason, with division champs earning byes. Now even if the Mets outspend the Marlins by a huge margin, it's still not clear which you'd rather be if the goal is to make the playoffs on a regular basis.

There would certainly be drawbacks. Wealthier teams would complain the small-market teams have it too easy. And if teams play more games within their divisions, the small-market teams might face an attendance drop if New York and Los Angeles don't come to town as often.

Also, at least on paper, this format could lead to more playoff mismatches. But we've seen enough postseason baseball to know that anything can happen in a short series — and if you're a team like Pittsburgh or Kansas City, this setup could provide a better path to contention, without a divisive push for a salary cap.

The last major realignment took place after the 1993 season, when baseball went from four divisions to six. That mostly involved moving teams from the East and West into the newly created Central divisions — but one club switched divisions without moving into the Central. Who was that?

Philadelphia's Ranger Suárez allowed three hits in seven scoreless innings and struck out a career-high 11 in a 3-2 win over Washington on Sunday. It was just what the Phillies needed after losing ace Zack Wheeler for the season because of thoracic outlet syndrome. Philadelphia leads the NL East by seven games.

Down 10-4 in the seventh inning Tuesday night, Atlanta scored five runs in that inning, then took the lead on Drake Baldwin's two-run single in the eighth and beat the Chicago White Sox 11-10. The Braves had a win probability of 1.4% at the start of the seventh according to Baseball Savant.

The Braves moved from the NL West to the NL East — although it may have been more accurate geographically to leave Pittsburgh in the East and put Atlanta in the Central. Part of the reason the Pirates were willing to move to the NL Central was to be with teams of comparable market size.

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Atlanta Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. scores the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Ranger Suárez throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton)

BERLIN (AP) — European leaders are expected to cement support for Ukraine Monday as it faces Washington’s pressure to swiftly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal.

After Sunday’s talks in Berlin between U.S. envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings in an effort to secure the continent’s peace and security in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia.

Zelenskyy sat down Sunday with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the German federal chancellery in the hopes of bringing the nearly four-year war to a close.

Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.

The U.S. government late Sunday said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”

Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO if the U.S. and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine continued to reject the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia.

Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace.

The Russian president also has cast Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

Zelenskyy emphasized that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”

“Pax Americana” refers to the U.S.’s postwar dominance as a superpower that has brought relative peace to the globe.

Merz warned that Putin’s aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”

“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned during a party conference in Munich.

Macron, meanwhile, vowed Sunday on social platform X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.”

Putin has denied plans to attack any European allies.

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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, leaves through a hotel garage for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz,stands in his office in the chancellory in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Maryam Majd)

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Jared Kushner, entrepreneur and former chief adviser to President Donald Trump, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, watches Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arriving at the chancellory in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Maryam Majd)