A baseball realignment plan can shorten trips, protect rivalries and still lose the vote that matters most.

For NC State Operations Research student Chandler Sambets, that tension sits at the center of a complicated baseball puzzle. His research explores how Major League Baseball could realign its teams while securing sufficient owner support.

The work earned second place in the poster competition at the NC Triangle Research Regional Exchange. Now, Sambets hopes to bring those ideas to baseball’s decision makers.

Finding Common Ground

As MLB considers expansion, rearranging divisions involves more than drawing boundaries on a map. Although a proposal might benefit the league overall, individual teams could face financial disadvantages.

Sambets explained why those competing interests matter. “A plan can look good for the league and still fail because owners are not voting on the league’s interest, but rather on their own.”

That difference can prevent an otherwise promising proposal from moving forward. As Sambets explained, “Because it takes a 75% supermajority, it only takes a handful of owners to block an otherwise efficient plan.”

To address that challenge, his model explores how expansion-fee revenue could help teams reach an agreement. Sambets described the approach simply. “Instead of splitting the expansion fee pool evenly, this research targets payouts to those who need it.”

The reasoning reflects differences in the teams’ financial circumstances. As he explained, “Done cost-effectively, that compensation gains more goodwill from smaller-market teams than from large-market ones, because a dollar means more to a franchise earning $100M a year than to one earning $500M a year.”

However, gaining support does not mean sacrificing the parts of baseball that players and fans value. Sambets builds those protections into his model. “Travel limits and rivalries are kept as hard constraints so the negotiation is not trading rivalries or longer road trips for votes.”

Within those boundaries, the research examines arrangements that could work financially and attract sufficient support.

Taking the Research Further

For Sambets, the poster competition offered more than recognition. It also brought perspectives that could help strengthen his work.

Reflecting on the experience, he said, “Placing second was a nice confirmation that the work is on the right track, but honestly the open feedback from academia and industry was the most valuable part of the experience.”

That feedback was built on guidance from NC State’s OR faculty. His advisor, Brandon M. McConnell, encouraged him to narrow his focus and understand the problem’s nuances. Meanwhile, Sebnem King helped him translate complex ideas into a rigorous mathematical model.

Sambets credited that foundation directly. “The OR program gave me the technical tools needed to think through this problem.”

Next, he plans to present the research at the Society for American Baseball Research Analytics Conference in 2027. There, he hopes to share his work with MLB executives and analysts.

His goal is to offer a useful tool for evaluating the tradeoffs surrounding expansion and realignment. Ultimately, the project connects mathematical analysis with the people whose decisions could shape baseball’s future.

As he prepares for that opportunity, Sambets recognizes the support behind his progress. “I’m grateful to NC State’s OR program and its faculty for the chance to take this as far as it’s gone.”