MLB to Add Two Teams
Commissioner Bruce held a press conference today at MLB Headquarters in New York, where he announced that the League would be expanding by two teams for the 2018 season. Bruce also announced a realignment of both the National and American Leagues. With sixteen teams now in each league, he announced that both leagues would eliminate divisions altogether, and add an additional wild card team to each league. The top two teams in each league would receive a first round bye, while the other four would play in a first round series.
As many expected when Bruce started floating the idea of expansion, one of the new teams will be in the Los Angeles area, and will revive a familiar name to fans of the Pacific Coast League. The new franchise will be known as the Hollywood Stars, and its ownership group is led by prominent Silicon Valley executive Sergio Loza.
The second new team comes as a complete and utter shock to the entire civilized world. Minot, North Dakota can now say it is a major league city, as the Minot Mallards will be joining the American League as its sixteenth team. Oil tycoon David Sullivan put together an incredibly strong financial package, and was able to convince Commissioner Bruce that this team would represent an entire region, and as a result, the entire region would support the team. How that is even possible I don' t know, but I wish them all the best.
The expansion teams will be stocked through an Expansion Draft, scheduled for November 25, 2017. The teams will select 35 players in a serpentine fashion from a pool of players unprotected by the other teams. Commissioner Bruce announced that through a coin flip the Mallards won the 1st pick.
Both teams have not yet shared who their General Managers or on-field managers are yet, but announcements should be released soon.