MLB is headed for major changes with a pitch clock, larger bases and a rule effectively banning the infield shift beginning as soon as 2023. Sports inevitably evolve over time, but few have undergone as sweeping a transformation as baseball, with MLB doing all it can to stay relevant in the digital age.
To that end, MLB has overhauled its extra-innings format, beginning each new frame with a nominal “ghost runner” at second base, while subjecting pitchers to a three-batter minimum to prevent teams from slowing down the game by constantly swapping out relievers. Between juiced balls (and its spiritual successor, the “deadened” ball), openers, coaching challenges, seven-inning doubleheaders and the league’s recent crackdown on “foreign” substances, years of endless tweaking has warped today’s MLB beyond recognition, birthing a sport entirely different from the one most of us grew up with. And the biggest change is still bubbling beneath the surface.
MLB’s playoff format has been hotly debated, with owners proposing an expanded 14-team field for its new CBA. Players reportedly prefer a 12-team playoff, a point of contention that has stalled negotiations as the league navigates its longest work stoppage in a quarter century. Amid the chaos, many have wondered how a 14-team postseason—a drastic departure from the current 10-team model—would work.
MLB’s proposal calls for 14 playoff teams with the best record in each league receiving a first-round bye. The remaining division winners would then select their opponents for a best-of-three series in a made for television special. From then on, the playoffs would follow its usual eight-team, three-round (Division Series, League Championship Series, World Series) format.
One issue, among many, is that teams won’t be incentivized to spend more on payroll when half the league already qualifies for October baseball. Per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the seventh-place team in the National League has averaged just 82.4 wins, meaning teams can essentially play .500 ball and make the playoffs. The current 10-team structure places a huge importance on winning the division with Wild Card teams at the mercy of a do-or-die play-in game. That obviously wouldn’t be the case if MLB expanded its playoff field to 14 teams, which, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, would generate an additional $100 million in television revenue.
One alternative favored by Mets veteran Max Scherzer—part of the union’s eight-member executive subcommittee—would reward division winners by staking them to a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five opening-round series. In that “ghost win” scenario, the two division winners from each league (excluding the division winner with the best overall record, which receives a first-round bye) would only need to win two more games while their opponent would have to win three of four to advance.
Few details are known about the 12-team option suggested by players, though, presumably, the top two teams from each league would receive a first-round bye. That’s a lot of hoops to jump through for arguably a worse product, but in a sport that milks its customers for every last penny, MLB will stop at nothing to make a 14-team playoff feasible, as convoluted and illogical as some of these proposals may sound.
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