As expected, the collective bargaining agreement expanded the postseason field from ten teams to twelve. Travis Sawchik of The Score reports the format (via Twitter): the top two division winners in each league receive first-round byes, while the worst division winner and the three Wild Card teams per league will play three-game sets to advance to the Division Series. The worst division winner will face the final Wild Card qualifier, while the top two Wild Card clubs will take on one another.
There is no “ghost win” involved. The Players Association had previously floated the possibility of division winners starting with a one-game advantage in any first-round set against a Wild Card club. MLB opposed that idea, and it didn’t make it into the final agreement.
The union’s push for a “ghost win” seemed more rooted in concerns about a potential 14-team format than with the 12-team arrangement, though. The MLBPA was unenthused by the possibility of going to 14 playoff teams, fearing that doing so would disincentivize clubs from ardently upgrading their rosters if they believed they were already comfortable postseason qualifiers.
Ultimately, the union held firm on the 12-team playoff this time around. Describing that as a loss for the league, which had sought 14 for most of negotiations, wouldn’t be entirely accurate though. Going from 10 to 12 clubs marked a major concession in its own right; the introduction of a new round of the postseason is worth a reported $85MM annually for the league under the terms of its broadcasting arrangement with ESPN. That’s before accounting for gate and concession revenue for clubs hosting those additional games.
With the postseason expansion, the Wild Card game is no more. The one-game playoff between the two Wild Card clubs in each league took effect with MLB moving from eight to ten postseason qualifiers back in 2012. It remained in place through 2021, but the one-game playoff has been eliminated in favor of three-game series moving forward.
Interestingly, the potential Game 163 tiebreaker has also been scrapped. Jayson Stark of the Athletic reports (Twitter link) there are seeding tiebreakers in place in the event teams finish the year with the same regular season record. The specifics aren’t clear, but other leagues have used such things as head-to-head record between tied clubs and winning percentage in intra-league games as tiebreakers. Rather than conducting a one-game playoff between teams that finish tied for postseason spots, a prearranged formula will determine the field.
Finally, the division series won’t be reseeded, Sawchik reports. The top seed in each league will host the winner of the 4 vs. 5 Wild Card series in the second round, even if the #6 seed beats the #3 seed. That’s a bit of an odd choice on the surface, but it could perhaps aid MLB in marketing the postseason as an NCAA basketball-style bracket.
More TV revenue, more teams more of a chance to have an undeserving teams in the WS
Look on the bright side, more of a chance for your Tigers to get in this year instead of waiting until next.
That would only happen if they 20 team playoff format
What a great playoff format! Instead of getting a advantage in having the best record you now get a week off to be rusty. These buffoons got rid of the too best games on the year the wildcard game.
The wild card games are entertaining but go against everything that is baseball. Teams are not built for a do or die game. A teams entire rotation should count towards advancing in the postseason.
@iverbure
This really doesn’t change all that much. The season would always end on a Sunday and the Division Series wouldn’t start until Thursday or Friday. This pushes it back maybe a day or two…assuming that they play the Wild Card Series all at one stadium with no travel days.
I presume wild card round will be at the stadium of team with best record? Has this been announced?
Yup…often wild cards are already hot. Baseball should do something actually revolutionary in sports and LIMIT the postseason to AL and NL Chanpionships…make the world series a spectacle again.
@Dock Revolutionary? Have, um, have you ever heard of the years 1969 – 1993??
Um…have you ever heard of sarcasm and the reference to going against what other leagues are doing now. A limited playoff WOULD be revolutionary in modern sports.
who are really undeserving, though? wild card teams have won since they played better when it mattered. 14 teams may be too many but 12 seem alright.
I never really liked the one-game playoff anyway. Best of 3 isn’t great, but is better. One change I wish they’d done is let the top overall seed in each league choose their 2nd round opponent. It would have given an additional incentive to finish with the league’s best record.
Good. The win or go home is not a real playoff. It’s a game, and the home team will probably win.
This is one of the best things to come out of deal. Playoffs are fun and really great getting rid of one game playoff series.
I love game 163s 🙁
Yeah, that’s a bummer especially where divisions are involved.
yeah, that does suck
I’ve been vocal about not wanting expanded playoffs, but this is the best way they could have done the 12-team format. Removing some of the randomness by rewarding the best teams with a bye and moving away from the q-game winner take all shenanigans
Don’t love this. If you win the division but don’t have as good of a record, you’re in the Wild Card. There are all sorts of scenarios where that isn’t fair. They don’t play the same schedules. What if you play in a division with multiple crappy teams and multiple mediocre teams? You get rewarded? And if you play in a tough division where every team is competitive, you get punished? They should include some sort of secondary means to determine the least deserving team of the three besides just record.
They should go back to a 2 division league with Winners getting the bye, #2s being Top ranked 1st series teams and 2 WC.
One of the main reasons for the multiple divisions is the travel mileage. The majority of teams are on the eastern side of the Mississippi, so the western teams end up at a disadvantage due to travel wear and tear if the schedules are balanced.
On the AL side, Toronto makes it, the NL side, the Reds who won 83 games. White Sox and Braves are tossed into the first round. I like Toronto making it and I’m OK with the White Sox and Braves not getting a bye, but the Reds in the playoffs is a stretch. The problem with two divisions right now is the imbalance. Two more teams and you could go two 8 team or even four 4 team divisions. Nice symmetry.
That’s changing next year, for better or worse. Unbalanced schedule goes away and they have at least one series with every team in AL and NL starting in 2023.
There is still an unbalanced schedule, even in 2023, just a less unbalanced schedule. Teams will play more games against teams in their division than teams outside their division, just not quite as many.
I’m glad the stand-off is over (at least until 2026), but a 12-team playoff still sucks. It simply waters down the 162-game season, and allows mediocrity to make it to the WS.
Did you watch Atlanta last year? 88 wins but took out LA….hell never should of beaten Milwaukee but their pitching got hot….
Purists need to understand we want to see the elite clubs matchup….But if you want to talk fair 92 wins from New York and 91 from Toronto should of gotten them more if Atlanta is getting to the WS on 88 wins in a much weaker division. Different league and division winner I get it but ya don’t think New York or Toronto deserved better?
in this new format, worst divison winner has worse odds than before. At least there is a benefit now to being a top 2 team.
We may actually end up w better reg season teams winning more in the playoffs w 12 than than 10.
kingbum — Absolutely agree with you 100%. 12-team playoffs an abomination after 162-game season. Bring on the mediocrity to the World Series.
Three things…
1. 12 is much better than 14. This at least keeps the postseason a little more exclusive than the league wanted.
2. The ridiculous one-game Wild Card playoff is over. It was beyond absurd for a sport that plays 162 games and plays series all throughout the season.
3. We avoid ridiculous ideas like “ghost wins” or picking your postseason opponent.
No “ghost win” is a huge win. That was one of the worst ideas I’d ever heard
As much as I hate seeing playoffs expand, I love that the one game wildcard rightfully got axed
They can try to be the NFL all they want. They’re never gonna be as popular.
This playoff setup pretty much makes divisions pointless and confusing, doesn’t it? Just take the top 6 teams from each whole league and don’t sort them into divisions, the top 2 get a bye, and it’ll make more sense. Or since all the rules are the same now, why even have two leagues?
Of course, it’d be best to have a balanced schedule with that too.
I’ve figured they were heading for this…but they need to expand by 2 to get there
The fact that “bye” teams will be determined by W-L record when baseball has a heavily unbalanced schedule shows how much the leaders of the sport have their heads up their butts. And with each expansion into the playoffs, the regular season becomes less and less valuable – 12 beats the pants off of 14 (given the value of a “bye”), but with how random results are over short series more and more it’s simply about being any one of the expanding number of playoff teams and less about being a top team. Sigh.
You can’t complain about the bye being decided by W/L as being a poor design due to unbalanced schedules THEN complain about the expansion of the number of teams into the playoffs. I AGREE in the “unbalanced schedule” argument……. WHICH IS WHY the number of playoff teams should be expanded.
Sounds like they will be going to a more balanced schedule starting in 23.
A bye for the top two seeds is a HUGE advantage. These guys are flat out exhausted by the end of the season. I work with MLB players and I can assure you that this bye is going to be very beneficial. Getting a week or so off is a massive help. They can rest their guys and situate their rotation accordingly. They won’t be rusty, like others believe.
How are the Wild Card teams determined? Are they the second place teams in each division, or the three teams with the next best records?
So much for that talk over recent years about expanding the playoffs but reducing the number of regular season games. Good old Bill Dollars spoke up and said no to that idea LOL
What’s the point of divisions now? Why not just take the top six teams? It gives unfair advantages to some teams with the unbalanced schedules. It could also disincentivize winning. Extra wild cards means easier paths to the postseason, but we’ve seen teams give up more quickly when they don’t see a path to 1st place.
Clearly realignment is coming.
Yeah because Baltimore in any other division is actually competitive but you got this 4 headed monster that could be the 4 most talented teams in the AL East destroying the rest of the league besides Houston and themselves….No one wanted to play Toronto in those playoffs
For better or worse the unbalanced schedule is changing in 2023. Less games against division teams and they play every team in the league- AL and NL
For the most part, OK with this. I get how traditionalists don’t like expanded post season given the daily grind of a 162 game season. But traditionalism doesn’t pay the bills. More post season games means more eyeballs on TV and more $$$ for MLB. You may hate that but the reason we have professional baseball in the first place is that someone figured out that people would pay money to watch baseball back in the 1860’s. So it has always been about the money. I am glad the players held firm on 12. 14 would have been a bit much. Maybe if/when they expand to 32 teams that can be looked at again. There won’t be a too big a break for the top two teams so rust should not be an issue. And most teams would prefer a break at that point to rest up and set their rotations. I do wish they would have rewarded the 3rd division winner with 3 home games in the first round series.
But the important thing is that baseball IS back.
I don’t like the 12 as it’s watered down, but better than having 14.
#3 seed (dictions winner) having to play in the wildcard round doesn’t make much sense and no incentive for winning the division. I would have had a play in of 5 v 6, with the winner facing 4 in a best of 3 on 3 straight days. Sort of let the wildcards duke it out to get to the division series.
*(division winner)
That would be dope and it respects the regular season….look nobody wanted to play Toronto the end of the year last year…one more week and either the Yankees or Red Sox would of collapsed. Red Sox vs Yankees for best of 3 would of been amazing too. I think people felt Toronto and New York got shafted…..
A further degradation of baseball in pursuit of another dollar.
At least they didn’t go to 14.
Both sides agreed to the 12 team format so it’s here to stay for at least 5 years. Best of 3 is better than one game for the wildcard round and two byes is fine for best Divisional winners.
Missing the possibility of Game 163 isn’t ideal. if it’s for a Division Championship, there should be a Game 163, otherwise I get why they’re doing it. I’d personally prefer the game over the tiebreaker.
I don’t love the format. I would have liked the division series to remain as is: 3 division winners in each league joined by one wild card team. Add the expansion in front of that to determine the one wild card team to move on. No division winner should be eliminated before a division series. I guess I’ll get used to it, but it seems to make the September pennant races less meaningful.
Well honestly Toronto last year might have won the AL and Atlanta won the World Series even though they won 88 games.
Yeah I don’t like it either. Maybe they should just have 2 divisions now. The schedule will be very different next season anyways
Guess that means Tampa, Boston, New York, and Toronto will make it….Oakland steps back maybe Seattle beats out an AL East team….maybe…. Houston and Chicago should get easily barring injuries
At least a last place team can’t make the playoffs. With the 14 team setup it could happen.
Not sure about this season, but I’m guessing next year one league will play Monday Tuesday Wednesday and the other will be Tuesday Wednesday Thursday. You only get a day off if you sweep the series. The LDS would start the same time if you do it this way.
I only turned on two baseball games last year, the one game wins wild card games.
It was still TTO and boring, but in theory, it at least seemed like it should be interesting.
then what are you doing on a baseball site?