Under The Knife 5/22/25

Renovations Underway

RIP NORM!

You can smell it on the breath of the next CBA fight. You can feel it in the flickering screens where Bally Sports used to be. Major League Baseball isn’t just out of step with the future, it’s limping through the present. The current divisional structure, the relic of Bud Selig’s last good poker hand, doesn’t work. Not for travel, not for fans, not for TV. In 2025, it has to work for TV.

The collapse of regional sports networks isn’t a warning shot. It’s the main event. Bally’s gone bankrupt, ESPN has dumped baseball, and teams like the Padres and Diamondbacks are already experimenting with in-house broadcasting on the fly. We’re not waiting for a new media model — it’s already arrived and it’s screaming for clarity. If MLB wants to survive the streaming era with its payrolls and fanbases intact, it needs a product that makes sense on screen. That starts with realignment. Not tweaks. Not patches. Blow it up and build something that works.

Here’s the first rule: geographic twins go together. The Yankees and Mets don’t need to be in separate leagues anymore. Neither do the Cubs and White Sox. Nor the Dodgers and Angels. (I’d have liked to keep the Royals and Cardinals in the same division, but couldn’t make it work.) We’re not living in a world where AL vs. NL means anything except who bats last in the All-Star Game. The universal DH killed the final difference, so lean in. Put those crosstown rivals in the same divisions and let them matter in September. The current setup treats them like circus attractions — “hey look, Mets-Yankees on a Tuesday!” — but then it vanishes for months. That’s bad TV. You want those matchups to mean something, to be part of a playoff race, not a novelty item.

Go to 32 teams. That’s coming anyway. Nashville wants in. Salt Lake City is pushing. Vegas alters things a bit, but we’ll see if it’s old Bay rivalry holds up or if they become something else. With four clean divisions in each league, you get structure. Eight divisions of four teams each. Tight. Geographic. Sellable. Fewer 10:30 p.m. Eastern start times for the Red Sox. No more three-hour flights for the Marlins to play the Rockies in May. Build around time zones and media markets, not what league the Senators used to be in.

You start in the Northeast: Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Phillies. That’s a content engine. You could sell that division as its own cable channel. Let ESPN or Amazon bid on the whole package. Every game is a rivalry, every series a playoff preview. Just below them, you’ve got the Nationals, Orioles, Pirates, and Blue Jays. It’s a mix of underloved teams with enough juice to matter if you package them right. The Midwest splits cleanly too. Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Twins in one. Reds, Guardians, Tigers, Cardinals in another. You preserve the Rust Belt battles and cut out most of the random flights to Denver and Dallas.

The South gets better too. Braves, Rays, Marlins, and expansion Nashville is a sensible, modern grouping with some upside. Texas stays together and gets less West Coast time: Astros, Rangers, Royals, and Salt Lake City. There’s already money and media in those markets — it just hasn’t had structure. Now you give it some. On the West Coast, it’s a no-brainer. Dodgers, Angels, Padres, Diamondbacks in one division. Giants, Mariners, Rockies, and Vegas in the other. I debated if Salt Lake and Colorado would be a rivalry or if their closeness made more sense, but again, not all of this works perfectly, but all of this is geographically sound. All of it is defensible in a meeting with Apple, or Peacock, or whoever comes sniffing around for baseball inventory in the next broadcast deal.

This isn’t about tradition. It’s about inventory. It’s about bundling games into packages that streaming services want to buy. You’re not selling 2,430 individual games. You’re selling divisions as drama. Consistent storylines. Matchups that repeat and build. Dodgers vs. Padres six times a year isn’t enough. Give me 18. Make them fight for the same playoff spot. Do it like the NFL does, with division titles that mean something and Wild Cards that sting. This structure gives you eight division winners, eight wild cards, and a clean playoff bracket. (Oh yeah, playoff expansion is part of this, because TV.) Seed by record, not reputation. Host the first round as best-of-three, no travel. It’s fair. It’s fast.

It helps the players, too. In the next CBA, the union is going to look hard at revenue. When RSNs dry up and local rights collapse, centralized media becomes the only viable model. That only works if the league has something clean to sell. This model gives them that. Time zone-based divisions make for better schedules. Fewer off-days for travel. More meaningful series. The union can argue that this structure reduces wear, makes the regular season more intense, and opens up more postseason spots. Owners get a product that’s easier to monetize. Fans get better games. Everyone wins, except the people still clinging to the AL/NL flags like it’s 1968.

Baseball has always been slow to change. It’s time to let go of the old map. The leagues don’t matter. The RSNs are dead. The only thing left is to make the game make sense to the people who still watch it, on phones, on apps, on whatever comes next. Build divisions that help the product. Build rivalries that matter in the standings. Build something that can sell.

That’s not sacrilege. That’s survival. Now, on to the injuries:

JUSTIN VERLANDER, SP SFG (inflamed pectoral)

This went backwards of normal. Justin Verlander was the vague one, saying only that a “physical issue” was behind a mediocre start and noticeable reduced velocity. Bob Melvin narrowed it down and said a “pectoral issue.” Even that’s not quite enough to know what’s going on, but a source tells me this is a simple pectoral tendinitis issue and remember, the pectoral tendon is in the shoulder, not the chest. If you simulate a bench press motion, you can feel where the tendon goes up there. There’s late word that he’ll go on the IL, but it’s expected to be a minimum stay.

The pectoralis major isn’t just a show muscle. It’s a key player in the throw. During late cocking, it’s on stretch, eccentrically loaded like a rubber band pulled tight. Then, boom! It unleashes in acceleration, driving internal rotation and horizontal adduction, helping generate elite velocity. It’s not alone (hello, lat and subscap), but it’s loud. Most injuries? Not on the mound, but under the bar - think failed bench, not fastball. Still, if overloaded while decelerating or catching contact mid-throw (more an issue for QBs than SPs), it can go. You want power? Train it right. You want to throw as long as Verlander? Respect the pec.

For a pitcher, this isn’t good, but it’s also easily managed. At age-42, things like this are par for the course and Verlander has been good at managing small injuries during the course of his career. You don’t pitch until age-42 without that, or chase Walter Johnson and Tom Seaver up the strikeout charts. (He could pass them both this season if he stays healthy.)

During the call, my source asked me whether or not I felt there were more injuries at this specific period than before. The simple answer is yes, but he suggested that we’ve gotten better at ramping pitchers up so they don’t get quite as fatigued in spring, so they skip that ‘dead arm’ period. That doesn’t mean fatigue doesn’t happen but the pattern could well change to match what we’ve seen this season and to some degree, last. The confounding variable is there’s so many injuries, it’s hard to see a single tree in this forest of data.

RONEL BLANCO, SP HOU (inflamed elbow)
FORREST WHITLEY, P HOU (bruised knee)

The last thing the Astros need is another pitching injury. Just as they’re about to get Forrest Whitley back from his knee issue, Ronel Blanco is headed for imaging on his elbow. Blanco was flown back to Houston for a Wednesday exam while the Astros front office tries to figure out how to juggle a rotation and roster that is losing more and more and diving further down the depth chart. In the short term, the Astros need someone to throw Sunday’s game. Given their short starts recently, it’s unlikely to be a bullpen game even with off days coming.

A longer term loss of Blanco could be devastating. He’s gone at least five in eight of his nine starts, a welcome relief for relievers, not to mention he’s been better than average in most of those starts. While he hasn’t been dominant this year the way he was early last, he’s been good solid innings, which is likely still undervalued. Innings aren’t just innings, but they do have to be completed. I don’t have a good “quality of inning” stat handy, but it probably exists, or should.

Last time Whitley came back from a bone bruise, he lasted a couple days and two innings of work. They’re going to need more, but it didn’t sound like there was a lot of confidence from Joe Espada talking about his return. Whitley’s been heralded, but seldom healthy over his career, but with everyone else falling aside, any innings at a tolerable level would be huge for the team. Whether either will happen is as big a question as it is with Lance McCullers, who made it only four innings while cutting his ERA in half … to 7.88. Whitley may have to go as Sunday’s starter because, who else?

More down below on Mike Trout, a bunch of pitchers (a bunch), and a top prospect who has a significant issue, plus more. Only for subscribers, so be one!