Montreal is quietly emerging as a real candidate for the next round of MLB expansion.

The city, once home to the Expos, hasn't had a team since 2004, when Jeffrey Loria's ownership decisions left a passionate baseball market without a club.

The lead group behind this push is called the Peanut Project.

Montreal's combined statistical area sits at roughly 4.29 million people, with the second-largest media market in Canada behind Toronto.

There's no owner locked in yet, no stadium funding secured, and no confirmed stadium site. Those are real gaps in any bid at this stage.

But multiple ownership-level sources have told ESPN the city is worth monitoring closely, citing demographics that are hard to ignore and a genuine baseball history still remembered fondly.

This isn't Montreal's first brush with a possible return. The Tampa Bay Rays' plan to split summers there fell apart back in 2022, leaving the city under the radar until now.

Why this bid feels different from past attempts

Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, owner of WatchMojo, is leading the latest push, positioning himself more as a facilitator gathering stakeholders than the money behind the bid.

"I do think it just does take leadership. And the city has tons of leadership. The city has incredible leaders in finance and insurance and banking and retail and everything," Karbasfrooshan told ESPN.

He framed the effort in colorful terms. "This is a bit more of like a typical American Dream story, which is one reason I'm actually fictionalizing it to keep my sanity as kind of like a 'Field of Dreams' meets a 'Moneyball.'"

"On a fundamental basis, Montreal is the most normal candidate for MLB with Salt Lake," he added.

A second MLB team in Canada would create a genuinely different landscape for the Blue Jays, who've operated as the sport's lone Canadian franchise since the Expos left.

Whether that eventually means a natural cross-border rivalry, shared national interest, or simply more competition for Canadian baseball talent remains to be seen.

None of the practical hurdles here are small. An ownership group, stadium funding, and an actual site all still need to materialize before this becomes anything more than a vision.

Whether Montreal's passionate history and strong demographics are enough to overcome those gaps is the real test facing this bid in the years ahead.