Texas Rangers president and CEO wouldn’t mind sharing the state and the American League with their neighbors to the south – the Houston Astros.  According to Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com, Ryan said he would be in favor of a realignment.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to that,” Ryan said earlier this week. “I would be in favor of adding somebody, and I think it would be good if you had the Rangers and the Astros in a pennant race. I think it would add a lot of interest in the state and I think it would be good.”

Sources close to ESPN said that MLB and the players’ association have spoken about a scenario where there are two 15-team leagues where each league would compete for five playoff spots each.  Two highly ranked executives believe the Astros would be the team to switch from the NL to the AL.

“If we can improve our situation, the Texas Rangers and I certainly would be open to it,” Ryan said. “It would make the rivalry in the state such a big deal, and I think the demographics in the state of Texas would help.”

The Rangers currently hold a 37-28 lead in their interleague series.

Image by Bukowsky18 under the Creative Commons License.