Getting On Board with MLB Expansion & Realignment Plans
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 874 Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eno and DVR discuss an early exit for Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday night and consider how his workload on the mound might be handled in 2026, and Zach Neto's long-term outlook as a player showing 30-homer, 30-steal skills. Plus, they consider the benefits of MLB's plan to expand to 32 teams, and Stephen Nesbitt's well-designed realignment that would actually preserve the American and National Leagues. They also look at the massive step forward from Maikel Garcia as the Royals are hanging around the American League Wild Card race as September draws closer.
Rundown
1:00 Shohei Ohtani Leaves Early with Thigh Bruise; Ohtani Pitching Outlook for 2026
9:19 Zach Neto: X-Rays Negative, Long-Term Outlook on the Strength of 2025 Growth?
18:00 The Big Plan: MLB's Next Round of Expansion & Realignment
26:24 The Nesbitt Plan: Realignment Proposal
Stephen's Story ($): https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6560635
36:13 The Royals Are Hanging Around
42:53 Pitching Development in Kansas City
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
Producer: Brian Smith
Executive Producer: Derek VanRiper
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to rates and barrels. |
| 0:12.5 | It's Thursday, August 21st, Derek Van Riper here with Enoseres on this episode. |
| 0:17.2 | We'll get to some baseball news you should know, including some updates on Show Hey Otani, |
| 0:21.6 | Zach Netto and Kyle Tucker. Rob Manfred spoke over the weekend, actually on Sunday during |
| 0:27.3 | the game in Williamsport, talking about expansion and realignment. We'll dissect a few of those |
| 0:33.0 | comments and look at some of the proposals, including a really interesting one from Stephen Nesbitt |
| 0:36.8 | of the Athletic |
| 0:37.5 | that I think makes an awful lot of sense if the league is, in fact, going to go to 32 teams and |
| 0:42.0 | realign some things along the way. |
| 0:44.7 | Got a few things you may have missed in recent days as well, like the Royals creeping their way toward a playoff berth this year. |
| 0:51.5 | Just two and a half back entering play on Thursday. |
| 0:55.0 | So let's get into it, Eno. |
| 0:56.8 | We saw Shohei Otani leave early on Wednesday with a thigh bruise after getting hit by a comebacker. |
| 1:03.0 | Took a few innings for that to swell up to the point where you had to leave. |
| 1:06.3 | They have a planned day off for him Thursday. |
| 1:08.8 | It's back likely on Friday against the Padres. So all things |
| 1:12.9 | considered, it looks like this is a minor issue as far as the performance on the mounds is at Coors |
| 1:18.4 | Field. Four innings pitched, five or nine hits, three K's, no walks, season high, 20 batters faced. |
| 1:24.7 | I think of all of the stats from Wednesday's outing, that one is the most important because |
| 1:31.0 | it's still another nudge closer to Otani getting that regular starter usage. |
| 1:35.8 | And I think we're sort of at that level. |
| 1:37.3 | We talked about it last time he pitched. |
... |
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