If they're really concerned about proximity (:rolleyes) they should focus more on realignment, shifting teams to different leagues/levels, and splitting existing leagues into smaller units. Merge all short season leagues (A and Rookie) into one 30-team level just like AAA, AA, H-A and L-A so that each Major League team has one affiliate at five levels. That would still require contracting ten teams (or twelve, if they're hell-bent on getting St. Paul and Sugar Land into affiliated ball), but that would be a lot less bloodshed. And honestly, there are some teams that probably need to go away (Batavia's been hanging on by a thread for years, and the Florida Firefrogs don't even have a home city right now), but 42 is too many. It would also give teams with "difficult" stadium situations time to fix those issues. If they don't, then MLB can cut the next thirty a few years down the road.

Really good point. Right now, it's really hard to pinpoint enough cities to handle minor league expansion, even with some prominent cities that have lost or are about to lose teams -- Pawtucket, New Orleans, Mobile -- available to fill some spots. I've tried to play around with this in the past (after coming across a post about it on Reddit), and it's not easy.