Major League Baseball is considering a shake-up of the postseason format, as reported by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.
Here’s how the new format would work:
The team with the best record in both the American and National League would receive a first-round bye, automatically advancing to the Division Series. The other two division winners would host all three games in a best-of-three Wild Card round, as would the Wild Card team with the next-best record.
Three other Wild Card teams would also advance to the best-of-three round, though none would host a game.
The division winner with the second-best record in the league would then get to decide which of the bottom three Wild Card teams it wants to play in the opening round — a decision that would be aired on live television on the final Sunday night of the season, just hours after the regular season concludes.
The best-of-three format in the Wild Card round would set up the potential for as many as 18 first-round games, 12 of which could be elimination games. Every Game 2 would be an elimination game, while a Game 3 would then serve as a win-or-go-home series finale.
As part of the change, MLB would also eliminate any Game 163 tiebreakers, using the season series between clubs to break any ties.
In a league where teams already play a 162-game regular season, executives are considering making the road to the championship even more grueling. I actually started writing this in defense of the league, but the more I wrote, the more I fell out of love with the idea. For starters, I have never been the biggest fan of a first-round bye for the highest-seeded teams. I understand that it’s a reward for having such an outstanding regular season, but isn’t playing the lowest-seeded team (current MLB playoff format) enough of a reward?
I’ve always loved that unlike the NBA and NFL, only the best teams in MLB make the playoffs. Twelve teams make the NFL playoffs (first round bye for highest seeded teams in each league) and sixteen, that’s right, SIXTEEN teams make the NBA playoffs. In its current format, only ten teams make the MLB playoffs, which is just one-third of the teams in Major League Baseball. In reality, it’s more like eight teams, since the bottom two teams only compete in a single game playoff, and not a series.
Another problem teams will face is that their pitching staffs won’t be able to carry the workload of an additional best-of-three series. Teams are already carrying less position players to make room on the roster for more relief pitchers, but this will only exacerbate the issue. With the potential of teams having to play twenty-two games in the postseason under this new format, pitching staffs will be running on fumes by the end of the World Series.
Another change proposed by MLB is to the regular season format. And this one I can get behind.
MLB realizes that with more teams competing for playoff spots the regular season must be addressed. Such thinking likely pushes it to a more balanced regular season. The current thinking is that every team will play all 29 other teams every year, as in an NBA model. And if and when that concept is embraced, it’s more likely that all teams would be playing by the same rules–including a DH adopted for NL teams.
Interleague play is something I think everyone can get behind. I mostly just want the Astros to have to play in Los Angeles so they can get the living shit heckled out of them, but it would also be interesting to see matchups that wouldn’t normally happen. This is the best way to grow the game of baseball. Get Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Cody Bellinger to play in every city and expose every fan base to the game’s greats. And it’s great for ticket sales too. Do you realize how much ticket prices skyrocket when a star comes to town?
Well would you look at that. I’m no scientist, but there has to be some correlation between the starpower on the Kings vs. the Lakers, and ticket prices. So MLB, if this needs to serve as a reminder…it will benefit the league monetarily to re-format the regular season schedule to bring teams to cities in both leagues.
While the new postseason format isn’t expected to become implemented until 2022, the more inclusive regular season should happen as soon as possible (in my opinion). However, it’s clear that the league is taking steps in the right direction to make themselves more appealing to a larger audience. But since it’s still the second-most profitable professional sports league in the world, I don’t think they need to make such a drastic change to an already thrilling postseason.
