Cubs might soon be stuck dealing with this old headache again

Realignment has been the focus of the last week, with Rob Manfred suggesting it was inevitable in the years ahead. The expectation is that Major League Baseball will have two new teams created in the years ahead, and there will be geographical realignment to better accommodate travel during the regular season. What that means for the Chicago Cubs is that they almost certainly will be in the same division as the Chicago White Sox, but they could also be reunited with a familiar foe.

In his latest for USA Today, Bob Nightengale floated one idea for realignment. It was an idea that was previously discussed in 2017, and would see the Cubs as part of the Midwest division. Each division would have eight teams, and the Cubs' divisional rivals would be the White Sox, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Texas Rangers.

In one way, it would have the feel of the old version of the National League Central. A division that included the Astros before they moved to the American League. The Cubs being reunited with the Astros as a division rival would give them a close look at the wrong they were about their last contending core. The rebuilds of the Cubs and Astros were often compared to one another in the years leading up to the Cubs winning the World Series in 2016, but then Houston managed to keep their contention window open long after the Cubs tore their core down in 2021.

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The only teams that would be missing would be the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds. Beating up on the Pirates and Reds has been common practice for the Cubs in recent seasons, but considering this theoretical division would include the White Sox and Rockies, the North Siders won't be short of doormats to step on.

Unfortunately, there likely isn't a realignment scenario that would have the Cubs no longer be division rivals with the Brewers. Much like teams from the same states would be in the same division, teams with few miles separating them, like the Cubs and Brewers, almost certainly will be in the same division.

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