Expos with the Yankees and Blue Jays? The dream division for Montreal

If the Expos ever return to Montreal, a rarely discussed question could completely change the fan experience: who would they play against?

The former Expos always played in the National League. From 1969 until their departure after the 2004 season, Montreal was part of the National League East division.

But a new Montreal franchise would not necessarily be obligated to take exactly the same place.

With a potential Major League Baseball expansion to 32 teams, Commissioner Rob Manfred is already considering a realignment of divisions. And if Montreal gets one of the new franchises, a particularly appealing possibility emerges:

Montreal in the same division as Toronto, Boston and the New York Yankees.

For Quebec fans, it's hard to imagine anything better.

The former Expos belonged to the National League

When Montreal gets its franchise in 1969, the Expos join the National League at the same time as the San Diego Padres.

MLB had just created its divisions. Montreal finds itself in the National League East with the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals.

The composition will change with various realignments, but the Expos will remain in the National League during their 36 seasons in Montreal.

Starting in 1994, their division rivals are the Mets, Phillies, Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins.

It is against these teams that many of the rivalries in Expos history are built.

Toronto, meanwhile, plays in the American League.

For much of the history of the two Canadian teams, this separation means that the Expos and Blue Jays meet very rarely in games that truly matter.

The first regular season game between the two clubs doesn't actually take place until 1997, after interleague play was introduced.

If Montreal returns, the situation could be completely different.

Montreal in the American League? We've seriously thought about it before

The idea may seem new.

It's not.

In 1997, as MLB was preparing a major realignment related to the arrival of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a scenario studied by owners would have moved several franchises from one league to another.

And the Expos were part of the plan.

In this proposal, the American League East would have notably included:

Montreal, Toronto, Boston, the New York Yankees, Baltimore, Detroit and Philadelphia.

In other words, nearly 30 years ago, MLB was already thinking about placing Montreal in the same geographic environment as the Blue Jays, Yankees and Red Sox.

The project was ultimately never adopted.

But its logic remains extremely interesting today: rather than preserving historical boundaries between the two leagues at all costs, why not group teams more according to geography?

This is precisely an idea that is now resurfacing in discussions about the next expansion.

MLB could soon completely redraw its map

Major League Baseball currently has 30 teams.

Rob Manfred has for several years wanted to eventually see the league grow to 32 franchises. He recently indicated that he hopes that after the next collective bargaining agreement, MLB can move to a true expansion process.

Two new teams would change everything.

With 32 clubs, MLB could easily create eight divisions of four teams.

But Manfred went even further.

He has publicly mentioned the possibility of a much more geographic realignment and even an East-West structure that would decrease the importance of the historic separation between American League and National League.

Nothing is decided.

We don't even know yet which cities would get the two expansion franchises.

But if Montreal is among the winners, MLB will probably not be obligated to look at a 2004 map to decide where to place the new Expos.

It can start from scratch.

And geographically, Montreal has particularly interesting neighbors.

Montreal, Toronto, Boston and New York

Imagine a division made up of:

Montreal Expos
Toronto Blue Jays
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees

Geographically, the whole thing is remarkably compact for major league baseball.

And from a sports and commercial perspective, the potential would be huge.

Montreal would immediately have three rivals capable of creating marquee matchups.

Toronto would offer a natural Canadian rivalry.

Boston is relatively close to Montreal and has one of the strongest baseball cultures in North America.

And the Yankees are… the Yankees.

Instead of games against New York or Toronto being occasional visits to the schedule, these teams could regularly come to Montreal as part of an actual divisional race.

Expos vs. Blue Jays: finally a real Canadian rivalry

Toronto probably offers the most obvious potential.

Canada has never truly experienced a major divisional rivalry in major league baseball.

When the Blue Jays arrive in 1977, the Expos have already existed for eight seasons. But Toronto is placed in the American League while Montreal remains in the National.

The two teams represent the same country for 28 seasons, without ever being able to develop the type of rivalry their proximity should have naturally produced.

Instead, imagine a new generation of Expos and Blue Jays continuously facing off for the same divisional championship.

Montreal fans could easily travel to Toronto.

Blue Jays fans could invade Montreal for a weekend series.

Sports media in both markets would naturally fuel the rivalry.

And there would be something the former Expos almost never experienced with Toronto:

September games that could directly determine which of the two clubs makes the playoffs.

From there, the rivalry would build itself.

It would take a pennant race.

A player hit by a pitch.

A game-winning home run in the ninth inning.

A playoff series.

And suddenly, Expos–Blue Jays could become the baseball equivalent of some of the great Canadian rivalries we know in hockey.

And then there would be the Yankees

For Montreal, the presence of the Yankees in the same division would have special value.

New York obviously represents one of the most powerful brands in world professional sports.

Each Yankees visit to Montreal would become an event.

But there's also proximity.

New York is much more naturally connected to Montreal than several cities that the former Expos were associated with in their division.

A Montreal–New York series would allow fans to travel in both directions. The many Yankees fans in Quebec would finally have the chance to see their team regularly in Montreal.

And for new Expos fans, the Yankees would immediately offer something essential to creating a sports identity:

a team you love to beat.

A rivalry doesn't need to have existed for 100 years.

It needs important games.

If the Yankees and Expos found themselves four or five times in a divisional race over a decade, history would write itself very quickly.

Boston could be even more natural

We certainly shouldn't overlook the Red Sox.

Boston is geographically close to Montreal and New England is a region deeply attached to baseball.

The Red Sox also have a huge fan base in the northeastern United States.

Boston–Montreal series would therefore offer another market easily accessible by car for fans.

And unlike a team located in Atlanta or Miami, Boston shares with Montreal a much closer climate and geographic reality.

A northeast division built around Montreal, Toronto, Boston and New York would simply have a cohesion that many current divisions do not have.

But what about the Mets?

That's where things get interesting.

Historically, the New York team for the Expos was rather the Mets.

The two clubs shared the National League East division throughout Montreal's Expos history.

Philadelphia was also a historic rival.

And if we simply wanted to resurrect the structure of that era, it would make sense to put Montreal back with the Mets and Phillies.

But a new franchise is not obligated to reproduce the past.

Rob Manfred has even mentioned in 2026 a particularly interesting idea: in a geographic realignment, he would nevertheless want to keep the two teams of the same city separate.

This means that the Yankees and Mets could end up in the same broad East structure, but in two different divisions.

You could then imagine something like:

Montreal – Toronto – Boston – Yankees

and, in a neighboring division:

Mets – Philadelphia – Baltimore – Washington

This is just one scenario.

MLB has not announced any division composition.

But it perfectly illustrates what a 32-team expansion would allow to do.

Modern baseball also makes the old leagues less important

There's another reason why Montreal could change leagues much more easily today than in the Expos era.

For decades, the American League and National League were almost two separate worlds.

Teams almost never faced each other before the World Series. The rules were even different, notably with the designated hitter in the American League.

This wall has gradually disappeared.

Interleague play arrived in 1997. Since 2022, the universal designated hitter has been used in both leagues. And the current schedule means that each team now faces the other 29 clubs during a season.

The "AL" or "NL" logo on a division therefore has much less impact than before.

Geography can become more important.

For Montreal, this would probably be the best scenario

If the Expos return, nostalgia will naturally push some people to want to find the National League again.

It's understandable.

The Mets, Phillies and Braves are part of Expos history.

But a new franchise also needs to think about the next 30 years, not just the previous 36.

And to build a new generation of fans, a division with Toronto, Boston and the Yankees would be hard to beat.

It would reduce distances.

It would make it easier for fans to travel.

It would multiply games against teams extremely popular in Quebec.

It would offer broadcasters naturally appealing matchups.

And above all, it would immediately give the new Expos three rivals around which to build their identity.

The dream: a Yankees–Expos game in September

Just imagine the scene.

A new stadium in downtown Montreal.

Late September.

The Expos are one game behind the Yankees in the standings.

Three games in Montreal to finish the season.

Thousands of New York fans arrive in town. Tickets are nowhere to be found. Montreal talks about baseball all week.

Then Toronto waits for the winner in the playoffs.

This is exactly the kind of scenario a new franchise would need to transform nostalgia for the old Expos into something completely new.

The return of baseball to Montreal should not consist of rebuilding exactly what existed in 2004.

You should keep the name.

The colors.

The logo.

The history.

But the rest can evolve.

And if expansion to 32 teams gives MLB the chance to redraw its divisions, Montreal could find itself in a much more interesting situation than in the era of the old Expos.

The Expos in the same division as Toronto, Boston and the Yankees?

This is not MLB's official plan.

But it's certainly no longer a far-fetched idea.

And to revive major league baseball in Montreal, it would be hard to imagine a better way to start a new story.