Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to the media recently and made comments about possible expansion teams. He mentioned it could be in the near to mid-long future. The MLB already has 30 teams in its league. The National League and American League each have 15 teams.
Where could expansion go?
Manfred mentioned that expansion will not happen until teams such as the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays figured out their stadium issues. Once they are done, he mentioned Montreal, Charlotte, and Mexico City as potential cities that could field an expansion team.
Mexico City would provide challenges due to their high altitude and high involvement of corporate business.
Montreal used to have a baseball team until the end of the 2004 season. The Montreal Expos played from 1969 to 2004 before moving to Washington D.C. to become the Washington Nationals. It's been 13 years, but fans in Montreal would love to have a baseball team. Charlotte has the Carolina Panthers in football and the Charlotte Hornets in basketball as major franchises. A baseball team would add to the mix there. Mexico City has professional soccer, but if a baseball team was added, the MLB would have teams in three different countries.
Possible names
The expansion is not going to happen right away.
The stadiums will take some time, but it's never too early to play around with possible names for a franchise.
If Montreal were to get a baseball team back in Canada, then the Montreal Expos have to come back. It was a perfect name for the team. In 1967, the team named themselves the Expos after a World Fair. It would be a tough rebuild for the team as their franchise didn't have that much success.
The Expos only made the playoffs one time in their history in 1981.
If Charlotte were to get a baseball team, they should be called the Charlotte Bobcats. The NBA team in Charlotte were the Bobcats for 10 years before changing their name back to the Hornets in 2014. The Bobcats would fit right in with Charlotte. Plus, fans would already have Bobcat gear to walk around with in town since the name change is just a few years old.
If Mexico City gets a baseball team, then only one name comes to mind and that is the Mexico City Aztecs. Mexico City was founded by the Aztec empire and eventually led to the Aztec Triple Alliance. If a baseball team is founded in Mexico City, it's only fitting that the first name should be the Aztecs. It would surely be a popular name among a new crowd of fans.
