These 2 Cities Are the ‘Heavy Favorites' to Land MLB Expansion Teams

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is not afraid to push baseball forward.

A few years ago, he implemented the pitch clock, forever changed the sport, and made it a more digestible product for casual viewers.

This season, he brought in the ABS (Automated Ball-Strike) System, which has changed the way umpiring in the century-plus sport will be handled for the rest of time, if it stays in place.

And now, with the rules and functionality of the game in a strong place, Manfred is looking at the next logical step: expansion.

It is no surprise that the MLB is looking hard at adding two new teams in the next few years to take the franchise count to 32, with cities across North America putting together potential ownership groups to pitch their cases to Manfred.

But what might be a shock, as reported today by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, is that MLB might already have two cities circled as its next hubs.

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The first city, Nashville, has seemed like a frontrunner from the get-go, already with a strong well of support in the state of Tennessee and the capital on bringing a major league team to it. Tennessee has become a hotbed of college baseball over the past few decades, with the Volunteers and Vanderbilt among the state’s must-see attractions.

It also adds another team in the south that the Atlanta Braves have owned for decades. The region deserves another MLB team, and Nashville seems like a surefire selection.

The other city, though, might be more of a shock: Salt Lake City.

While cities like Charlotte, Vancouver, Portland, Orlando, and others have been bandied about, per Nightengale, it is Utah that leads the second expansion slot alongside Nashville.

We’ve already seen the city embrace the Mammoth, the former Phoenix Coyotes, and with investors seeing the state as a growing commercial destination, a baseball franchise would be the logical next step.

We’re likely two to three years from teams officially being locked down for expansion, as Manfred still needs to ensure the Athletics properly transition to their new home in Las Vegas.

But change, like it has been almost every year in the sport of baseball, is coming.

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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 8:36 PM.