There are some MLB rivalries that will last till the end of time. Cardinals and Cubs fans will go back and forth on 1-55 to yell at each other for years. Giants fans and Dodgers fans will never be best friends. New England parents will bar their children from marrying Yankees fans forever. Some rivalries are eternal.
However, other rivals spring up, naturally, in the midst of heated competition, overt familiarity or just spite. And this is normal, everybody wants to win and they have that one club that is always stealing wins away from them. These quarrels will not stand the test of time like the Red Sox-Yankees’ bad blood, but in the moment, and over the course of a season, they are just as vicious.
Long-standing MLB rivalries are something that comes to mind, now that MLB Network is celebrating Rivalry Week, which extends to this weekend with three intradivision clashes broadcasted: Dodgers – Padres (Friday, 9:30 p.m. ET), Yankees-Rays (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET) and Astros-Mariners (Saturday, 9:30 p.m. ET). The Twins and Guardians will open their series on Friday (7:10 p.m. ET) for an Apple TV+ doubleheader.
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Here is a list of the biggest pop-up MLB rivalries in every division today, with four of those matches listed.
AL East: Yankees-Rays
Two years ago, Neil Paine of FiveThirtyEight declared that Yankees and Rays were the one true rivals in the AL East and the rivalry got more intense since then. While Kevin Kiermaier is now in Toronto, the longtime Ray still gave a summary of why Tampa Bay and New York are the perfect rivals last season:
“The Yankees, they’ve got the big payroll, the mega-superstars,” Kiermaier said. “And then you’ve got the Rays. The small payroll. Not a whole lot of household names, but a lot of above-average Major Leaguers. And guys who know how to win.”
This is especially accurate this season, the Rays are off to a shaky start, and the Yankees are one game above .500 but still in last place. Include the Yankees’ Spring Training facility being sited in Tampa, and fans get the ideal 2023 rivalry.
AL Central: Guardians – Twins
AL Central shaking out over the last decade, Guardians – Twins are the only significant teams that could fit the MLB rivalries description. Since the Royals won the division (and the World Series) in 2015, these clubs have won six of the seven division titles. The Guardians won four and the Twins two.
As the division falls apart around them, Minnesota is three games up on the Cleveland Guardians, and the Detroit Tigers are a distant third, five games back and things may be like this for a while.
One of the interesting things about rivalries is that they are better when the rivals share similar traits: People always hate most what reminds them of themselves. This summarizes the Twins-Guardians rivalry briefly.
AL West: Astros – Mariners
There is an alternate reality where this rivalry does not happen:
The Mariners, in their first postseason run in 20 years, are one out away from stealing home-field advantage from the despised, predatory Astros: they just need to get that last out.
Then Yordan Alvarez sends a home run into the throngs of screaming Houston fans, and in that moment, Houston was off, on their way to winning its second World Series title.
Seattle with all their young talent, believes that their story has just started. But like everyone else, they must get through the Astros first.
NL East: Braves-Mets
Braves – Mets is not entirely a new feud. Chipper Jones did name his son Shea. But, apologies to the Philadelphia Phillies, these two teams are armed to the teeth and ready to clash for the next half-decade.
Atlanta has a core group signed for years to come and looks prepared to secure another World Series. New York on the other hand are motivated to clinch the NL East mantle from the Braves and get their first championship victory since 1986. To know how heated this rivalry can become, eyes turn to the end of last season, where Atlanta swept the series from New York and won the division for the fifth consecutive year. And this is just the beginning for them.
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NL Central: Brewers – Cardinals
For this rivalry to be sustained, the Cardinals have to move out of the last position eventually. If this happens, these two sides will do the same dance they have done for the entire century. St. Louis’ success is well documented. But the problems they have given Milwaukee from 2011 (one of the best Brewers teams fell to the streaking Cardinals in the NLCS) to last year then the Brewers antagonized the Cardinals all season until Josh Hader’s trade sent the team downward.
One entertaining thing about this division rivalry: is that they have gone against each other before in the 1982 World Series; the Cardinals also won that one.
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