MLB is talking to Las Vegas about an American League franchise. My first guess is this is blackmail to get either Tampa Bay or Oakland a new stadium, just like talk of moving the Giants to Tampa Bay served to get that team out of Candlestick Park. Moving the A’s to Vegas would cause the least pain, since there would be no changes to the divisions. Moving the Rays west would force Texas into the AL Central, and Cleveland or Detroit into the AL East. I suspect the two latter teams would greatly resist that move.
Moving a team from the AL East to AL West wouldn’t require moving any other teams. It would just mean the East would be the division with only 4 teams. (Although Texas might prefer your scenario.)
Can’t we worry about fixing the NL Central & AL West problem first, probably by moving Houston in the AL West? (Or move Phoenix to the AL West and Houston to the NL West.)
@Joseph: An odd number of teams in each league would cause scheduling problems. On every single day, a team in each league would need to either take the day off or play an interleague game against each other. This is why the current arrangement was devised.
I wouldn’t like the idea of the Yankees and Red Sox being in a 4-team division. How about to help the balance moving Milwaukee (Central) and Washington (East) back to the AL where they belong?
@Dan: Granted, but do the Cubs really need the possibility of ending 6th every season? (See, we could have fixed this by contracting the Marlins and the Twins!)