New playoff format is awesome, can be better
I didn’t think I would be a fan, but I’ve been convinced: The new Major League Baseball playoff format is awesome.
And no, I’m not just saying that because the A’s won on Thursday.
I’m saying it because while I have championed the old, 10-team MLB playoff format as a model that other leagues should copy, the new 16-team tournament and the three-game wild card series have provided tremendous entertainment — the kind that is all too rare in this sport, if we’re being honest.
I do think there’s a way to improve it, moving forward, though.
Like it or not, the expanded postseason is here to stay.
Remember a few months ago, when there were questions on how long the MLB season would be — if there was a season at all? The negotiations revolved around how soon the league could get to these playoffs. The league office would have been fine with a 15-game regular season — just make sure the postseason was played.
That’s because individual teams make their money in the regular season through local television deals that are dramatically variant. But the playoffs? That’s where the league as a
whole makes its money.
So it’s not surprising that, according to a Forbes report, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is looking to expand the playoffs from the 10-team format moving forward.
Now baseball could go with this 16-team format, which has created morning-to-night games on Wednesday and Thursday. March Madness, meet Fall Frenzy. And while sub-.500 teams making the playoffs isn’t ideal, over the course of 162 games, it would feel like less of a fluke than it does in a 60-game season.
But that format doesn’t feel fair to the teams that posted great records over the course of a full season.
So how about a 14team playoff?
The top team in each league gets a week-long bye. A week to get healthy, take a breather, and get their rotation exactly as they want it. After 162 games, trust me, the top teams will want it.
And I’m not a fan of this second-place finisher nonsense, either.
So let’s just make it the three division winners (with the best record getting a bye) and four wild card teams from any division.
The other two division winners and the top wild card team host the surprisingly awesome threegame wild card series.
Let’s talk about the three-game series. Could you imagine how exciting those games would be with fans in the stands? Those hard-earned homefield advantages would be worth the trouble.
Turn Thursday and Friday into wall-to-wall baseball days — again, reminiscent of the first round of March Madness — and leave Sundays to the NFL.
This would make earlyround playoff baseball must-see TV. It would keep the regular season engaging, as more teams would be vying for a playoff spot.
It’d be awesome.
At this point, it’s hard to imagine going back to the 10-team model. A one-game wild card round? How primitive.
Whether MLB sticks with 16 teams or adopts a tighter, better 14-team playoff, it’s clear a bigger playoff pool is the way forward. Sorry, traditionalists: You lose again.