How the New MLB Schedule May Put West Coast Teams at a Disadvantage

With Major League Baseball's new balanced schedule, the Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks, Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants will all have to deal with longer travel in 2023. Will West Coast teams be at a disadvantage due to the schedule change?

Major League Baseball will look a little bit different in 2023, as it rolls out some changes to not only the league's rules, but also its schedule.

Major League teams will now play fewer games against division rivals. The games that previously were played against division rivals will now be redistributed, so that each team can play a series against each of the 29 other MLB clubs. MLB teams will play 13 games against each divisional foe. Since 2001, teams have played any number between 16 and 20 games against each team in their division. Now, each National League team will play every American League team, and vice versa. The clubs will alternate host sites each year. For example, the Chicago Cubs will play the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium in 2023. In 2024, the Cubs will host the Angels at Wrigley Field.

The new 'balanced schedule' will aid teams that play in highly competitive divisions, such as the American League East. It will allow teams in difficult divisions to play more interdivision games, and limit the amount of damage one division will inflict on itself.

But will the new balanced schedule actually make the sport 'more fair'? Like everything, the schedule change will come with its pros and its cons.

Playing fewer games against divisional and regional opponents will spell more travel for teams, especially ones on the east and west coast.

Teams in the Midwest like Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Minnesota, Detroit and even in other places like, Houston, Arlington and Colorado, won't be impacted quite the way coastal teams will. I've lived in Chicago my whole life, and one of the benefits of living in the Windy City is that we're relatively central to the rest of the country. We don't require cross-country flights. 

East coast teams will now have more cross-country flights than they did before. However 14 teams — New York, Boston, Baltimore, Toronto, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington, Miami, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Cincinnati — are all east of the Mississippi, and while trips to Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland and Arizona will not be short, there are twice as many east coast teams as there are west coast teams.

In 2022, the Mariners had the longest travel of any team. Now, the club will take more trips to the east coast and the Midwest. A flight from Seattle to New York roughly takes five hours and 15 minutes, not including the three-hour time difference between the Pacific Time Zone and the Eastern Time Zone.

The Mariners, Athletics, Giants, Angels, Dodgers, Padres and Diamondbacks will all travel significantly more in 2023, than they did in 2022. Time will only tell if the extra travel proves to be a hindrance for these seven teams or the teams on the east coast.

Check out our full American League West Preview on the Jack Vita Show!

Subscribe to the Jack Vita Show on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | Pandora | TuneIn | Listen Notes | Podtail | Podchaser | Hubhopper | Audio junkie | Himalaya | Podcast Addict | Available wherever podcasts are found.

For more from Jack Vita, follow him on Twitter @JackVitaShow, and subscribe to his podcast, the Jack Vita Show, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, iHeartRadio, and wherever podcasts are found.