Postseason lifeline for Padres, others?
The Padres seem headed to a big victory at the bargaining table. Within a year looms a brown-and-gold windfall that has nothing to do with A.J. Preller’s rosterimprovement plans and largely won’t be of the Padres’ doing, though Peter Seidler and Ron Fowler can — and likely will — support efforts to make it happen.
What’s in store, it appears, are expanded World Series tournament fields for many years to come, perhaps as soon as 2021. Playoff contention and wild cards will be less difficult to earn, no small perk for a Padres franchise that has posted 11 losing seasons in 13 years and must contend with a Dodgers franchise that has won the past eight NL West races and shows no strong signs of slowing.
Caveat: Playoff expansion isn’t certain. MLB management and the players union must hash out details, first for 2021 and then other years under a new labor pact to replace the CBA now entering its final year. This past season’s expanded World Series tournament fell under a one-time agreement, inf luenced by the coronavirus pandemic.
Follow the money, though, and Padres teams seem assured a broader path to the postseason.
The number of wild-card berths per league appears headed up from two, the number stipulated by the current labor pact dating to 2012.
October Madness
MLB’s broadcast partners want a bigger World Series tournament because advertisers support it. With pandemic-induced revenue losses part of the puzzle, there’s probably too much easy money down that road for MLB owners and players to continue to exclude 20 of 30 teams from the postseason.
“I think it’s safe to say that long-term, MLB is highly motivated to expand the playoffs beyond 10 teams,” said Jayson Stark, a baseball writer with The Athletic who has reported on MLB-union negotiations for decades. “I’m going to predict it winds up at 14 teams. That’s the idea that’s been discussed the most. But whether that happens in 2021? Too early to say.”
Fourteen playoff teams would mean doubling the
number of wild cards per league and giving the Padres a 33.3 percent shot at a wild card, should they fail to win the five-team West.
The Padres gained from the much-expanded 2020 format that admitted 16 teams (53 percent) into the World Series tournament, alleviating pressure on a franchise seeking its first playoff berth since 2006.
As it turned out, the Padres, by posting the league’s top record (37-23) among teams that didn’t win a division, would’ve claimed a spot under any of the formats that had prevailed since the wild card was adopted in 1995. Facing a Cardinals team (30-28) that tied with two other non-titlists may have been a perk. The Padres, rebounding from a Game 1 defeat, won two games to earn their first playoff-series victory since 1998.
This past year’s breakthrough notwithstanding, the Padres qualify as a franchise that will welcome a helping hand. As exciting as the 60-game sprint was, the full season would’ve
been 2.7 times longer. Five other Padres teams that matched or exceeded the 2020 team’s 37-23 record in a 60-game stretch didn’t get a playoff berth.
The Padres have won their division just five times in their 52 seasons. They announced that co-ace Mike Clevinger will miss the 2021 season to recover from reconstructive elbow surgery, a huge setback from an August trade that sent six players to Cleveland.
Easier today
If Padres teams of decades ago could’ve signed up for a bigger postseason, they would’ve crawled to put pen to paper.
The 1978 Padres, for example. Back then, not only was the NL West both a bigger and better division than today, MLB provided no safety net to contenders. You either finished ahead of your five West rivals, or you headed home.
Padres scouts had drafted a pair of future Hall of Famers, shortstop Ozzie Smith and outfielder Dave
Winfield, who started for the ’78 team. Rollie Fingers, a teammate who logged 1071⁄
3 innings and a league-high 37 saves that year, would join them in Cooperstown. The NL’s Cy Young winner that year, Gaylord Perry, headed San Diego’s rotation and pitched to a 2.73 ERA across 37 starts and 2602⁄ innings.
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The Padres won 84 games, good for their first winning season. And yes, they, too, went 37-23 across 60 games (starting June 22). Their reward? Fourth place in a division whose five champions since 1974, including the ’78 Dodgers, all reached the World Series. The Padres didn’t claim the West title until six years later, when no West rival posted a winning record.
Will a bigger World Series tournament dilute the regular season? For some fans, yes. For fans of a team trying to claim a sixth or seventh seed, the games will carry more weight.
For the Padres, a Temptations song comes to mind. “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.”