Expanded playoffs: MLB, players agree to expand postseason to 16 teams.

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball and the players union agreed Thursday to expand the playoffs from 10 teams to 16 for the pandemic-delayed season, a person familiar with the deal said, a decision that makes it likely teams with losing records will reach the postseason.

The agreement was reached hours before the season opener between the New York Yankees and World Series champion Washington Nationals, according to the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement was subject to owner approval.

Sixteen of the 30 teams will advance to a bestofthree first round. Those winners move on to the bestoffive Division Series, where the usual format resumes. The final four teams are in bestofseven League Championship Series, and the pennant winners meet in the bestofseven World Series.

In each league, the division winners will be seeded 13, the secondplace teams 46 and the teams with the next two best records 78, which means up to four teams in one division could be in the postseason.

As part of the deal, MLB agreed to guarantee a postseason pool that would be $50 million if the entire postseason is played. The postseason pool usually comprises ticket money from the postseason, but baseball anticipates playing the entire year in empty ballparks due to the coronavirus.

“It’s such a unique season, why not try a little something different and make it as exciting as possible,“said Colorado shortstop Trevor Story, whose team has not won a World Series title. “I know it’s going to be such a sprint with the 60game season; adding more playoff teams will just add to the fire and the excitement and the fandom around the game. Anything can happen in a 60game season. I’m all for it.”

The change means 53% of the 30 teams reach the playoffs. If eight teams qualified for the playoffs in each league from 1995 through 2019, 46 teams at or below .500 would have made it, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, an average of just under two per season. There would have been only three seasons in which all playoff teams would have had winning records, Elias said: 2000, 2003 and 2009.

The new format created at least 14 additional postseason games and 22 if each firstround series goes the distance.

“It would be a great way to keep fan bases engaged throughout the entire season,” Milwaukee Brewers AllStar Christian Yelich said. “You’d have a really tight race all the way down to the last day of the season. I think there’d be a lot of teams in it within a game or two of each other going into that final day.”