MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred just found the perfect way to ruin the league’s playoff format.
As ESPN first reported, MLB is considering changing its playoff format, potentially expanding from 10 teams to 14 starting in 2022. There would be three divisional winners in the American League and National League, as well as four wild-card spots in each league.
The top teams in each league would then receive a bye in the first round of the playoffs, and the remaining divisional winners and the top wild-card teams would host a best-of-three series in the first round of the playoffs.
The format would also allow the top two division winners in each league to choose their playoff opponents in the second round of the playoffs.
Simply put, it’s an awful idea.
Twitter didn’t like it either.
No idea who made this new playoff format proposal, but Rob is responsible for releasing it, so I’ll direct this to you, Rob Manfred. Your proposal is absurd for too many reasons to type on twitter and proves you have absolutely no clue about baseball. You’re a joke.
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) February 11, 2020
1. Unlike all other sports, the @MLB regular season is 162 games, it’s a marathon not a sprint.
2. Unlike the @NBA and @NHL where half the teams make the playoffs, the MLB regular season means something.
3. Don’t eff this up Manfred.
— MLBcathedrals (@MLBcathedrals) February 11, 2020
I used to be the biggest opponent of the one game wild card playoff because I don’t think it’s fair that a season comes down to a single game after playing 162 if records are not equal. But it’s not bad at all in comparison to baseball’s stupid and abominable playoff proposal.
— Gershon Rabinowitz (@GershOnline) February 11, 2020
There are 30 MLB teams, so under this format, nearly half of them would make the playoffs. So yes, this means teams with losing records would make the playoffs from time to time. As Tim Britton of the Athletic pointed out, in the past seven MLB seasons, a total of six teams with winning percentages of .500 or worse would have made the playoffs. This includes the 2014 New York Mets, who went 79-83.
If you think anyone can rationalize why a team with a losing record should make the playoffs and have a shot at a World Series, I have a bridge to sell you.
As for the notion that some teams get to pick their playoff opponent, that’s ridiculous. The challenge of the playoffs is that teams have to beat tough competition to advance. In theory, if a team is championship caliber, it should be able to beat all comers.
There’s also this issue: What will the players and the players’ union think of it? It’s an obvious cash grab by MLB that forces players to compete in more games, which translates to more wear on their bodies, especially for pitchers.
Presumably, players will want more money as a part of expanded playoffs, which could be a complication in itself. The players’ union understands more playoff games means bigger TV contracts and more ticket sales for MLB, after all.
If MLB wants to increase revenue by millions of dollars, maybe that could start with teams putting small advertisement patches on jerseys, similar to the NBA. Sure, they’ll receive some backlash for it from purists, but at least it won’t screw with the game.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelance writer who has been published with USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other media outlets.
