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Baseball’s popularity continued to skyrocket into the 21^st Century with an especially dedicated and passionate fan base throughout Central America and the Caribbean. The Central American Baseball Association had expanded twice in since its inception in 1911, first in 1962 and then in 2003. Some felt it might have been too soon for another round, but others wanted to strike while the iron was especially hot.

Mexico was one of the most invested major nations and certainly had a number of large cities that had only grown since the last expansion. Meanwhile, the choices for new teams in the Caribbean League wasn’t as immediately obvious. Most of the few major cities already had teams, as did the largest of the island countries. However, the appetite was so strong that many felt far smaller markets than traditionally expected could support a CABA franchise. Soon after the last expansion, officials began further exploring places that might be able to support a team.

The next question was how many teams would you add and where? Both leagues came up with the rough idea of adding four teams, but eight newcomers at once had the potential to severely disrupt competitive balance. There was also the question of potential realignments and changes to the playoff system. Since 2003, both leagues had used two divisions of eight teams. Officials were split on if they just wanted to add to the large divisions or divide up into a different setup.

Eventually the plan was set for a six team expansion that began with the 2025 season. The Mexican League would add two teams, one to each existing division. Meanwhile, the Caribbean League would see a radical shift with four teams added and a split into three divisions. With 20 teams, the CL would have two divisions of seven teams and one with six.

For the Mexican League, the Culiacan Cocks joined the North Division and the Toluca Tortugas entered the South Division. The long-term plan was to later add two more teams and realign the ML in a similar fashion to the CL. Those two additional teams would be finalized to begin play in 2030.



The Caribbean League took a bit more creative planning based on the far more limited options for new teams. Cuba had previously been represented by Havana with many arguing that the country was easily deserving of multiple teams. With the capital in the west, the easterly Santiago de Cuba, the second-largest city in the country, was an obvious option. Since there was already a team called Santiago in the league based out of the Dominican Republic, this new franchise adopted the moniker East Cuba Crawdads.

Three island nations were chosen for the other expansion squads and would be among the smallest population bases for a team. Supporters argued that the region’s baseball fanaticism, plus the successes of other CABA teams and of Pacific League teams in OBA, made this a viable option. Earning charters would be the Curacao Chaos, Barbados Bay Cats, and Guadeloupe Glory.



Three of the new teams were eastern Caribbean or Lesser Antilles region along with East Cuba. Thus, the new division structure wasn’t even in terms of having a newcomer. The East Division would feature Curacao, Barbados, and Guadeloupe as newcomers, along with Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Suriname, and Guyana. The Pelicans were the only original CABA team in that group and was leery of losing some historical rivalries, but they were the seven most easterly teams. Officials also hoped this would promote some success from some of the newer franchises.

The West Division had East Cuba as the newcomer along with Bahamas, Haiti, Jamaica, Santo Domingo, Santiago, and Havana. The one six-team division would be the Central Division and kept the original six Continental Division teams together: Honduras, Panama, Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.



With more teams, officials also looked at expanding the postseason. Previously, both CABA leagues sent two division champs and two wild cards. The new format would send six teams from each league. As the Mexican League maintained a two division structure, the two division champs earned a bye to the second round while four wild cards met in the first round. The Caribbean League would have three division champs and three wild cards.

The first round would be officially a “best of three,” but the higher ranked team earned a one-game handicap and hosted. The higher seed just needed to win one game, while the lower seed had to win twice. The second round remained a true best-of-five with the higher seed hosting all five games. This was designed to provide extra incentives for regular season success. The LCS and CABA Championship both remained a 2-3-2 best-of-seven format. There would also be re-seeding prior to each round.