The Nashville Stars Hire Don Mattingly And Have The Inside Track To Be Next MLB Expansion Team

I've talked about it briefly in this blog but I completely agree with Bob Nightengale (for once). I see Nashville absolutely getting a team in the next round of MLB expansion which could begin this calendar year. The only reason baseball hasn't expanded yet is that they want the stadium issues in Oakland and Tampa Bay resolved first. Rob Manfred has said publicly that the situation in Oakland is at a breaking point and it doesn't take much reading of the tea leaves to see that Oakland will be heading to Las Vegas as soon as they can. Manfred has even said the A's wouldn't have to pay a relocation fee if they move to Vegas.

That leaves just the Tampa Bay Rays and Manfred has been more optimistic that something can be worked out in that area, whether it be a new stadium in Tampa or St. Pete. My thinking of the situation is that MLB is increasingly getting eager to expand now that the CBA is settled for the next few years. It doesn't help anyone to have an uneven amount of teams in each league and MLB hasn't had an expansion team since 1998. Not only that, but if MLB charges two new expansion teams a $2 BILLION fee each to join the league, every owner would get roughly $133 million each. That's a pretty nice chunk of change for doing nothing (although they will be splitting future media revenues 32 ways instead of 30 moving forward).

So why am I so high on the Nashville Stars getting a team? I've never seen an organization this ready during the expansion process, much less before it even begins. They already have a team name/logo, some legitimate baseball people as owners or advisors (Dave Stewart, Dave Dombrowski and now Mattingly) and they are a market that MLB would love to get into. They even had representation at the Winter Meetings last month. The Nashville Stars would also be the first team with majority ownership consisting of people of color. I can't see anyway they aren't the first choice the minute MLB approves expansion.

MLB also isn't going to expand by only one team so there will be two cities chosen. Manfred has made no secret of looking to get back into the Montreal market. They are one of the largest media markets in North America without a baseball team currently. You also can't rule out Portland, Charlotte or San Antonio. 

Even if MLB approves expansion sometime in 2023, the earliest you'd see the Nashville Stars take the field would be 2025. They usually give the new organizations time to get their minor league system in order as well as hiring personnel. They also allow the new teams to take part in the amateur draft the year before they take the field to build up those new minor league teams as well. If that timelines holds true, the expansion draft (which is one of my favorite things ever) would take place during the General Manager meetings in November of 2024. Don't lock me into that timeline. That's just the absolute earliest that I could see these things take place.

The last time MLB expanded was 1998 (Diamondbacks/Devil Rays). It was the early days of the Extra Innings package and obviously years before MLB.tv. There hasn't been a new MLB team in the internet age when there are so many new ways to follow and root for a team. It's going to be a great opportunity for Nashville and some other city.