Three days ago, the Texas Rangers sat in the basement of the American League West division with an 10-12 record. As of Monday, with a weekend sweep of the Mariners, they’re in first place. A 13-12 record is no better than third place in four of the other five divisions in baseball. While the season is still young, if this trend continues, it looks like there will be several teams who fall short of a Wild Card spot missing the postseason in favor of a division winner hovering around .500.

The argument for realigning the divisions or expanding the postseason format in baseball has been strong in the last few months. People have suggested everything from putting the Yankees into the Central or the Red Sox into the National League, or adding anywhere from one to four more postseason teams per league. Nothing is going to happen before the next CBA is discussed, but MLB is aware that some fans – and teams – are not happy with the way things are.

The best thing to do would be to go back to a two-division format. Regardless of how many teams are added as wild card winners, MLB would be lowering the chance that a .500 division winner makes the postseason while a better team in a more challenging division misses the playoffs by finishing in second or third place. This would also provide the chance that all of the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays - who are three of the best five teams in the American League - can make the postseason in the same year.

MLB would not be degrading the regular or post-seasons by going back to two divisions. By ensuring that better caliber teams are making it gives a better chance for higher-quality series’ in October. Teams would no longer have to face each other as many as 18 times per season, so rivalries would be lessened overall, but balancing the schedule would help to create better pennant races and create postseason rivalries instead. And that’s not a bad trade.