This season, Major League Baseball introduced a new 12-team playoff that allowed three Wild Card teams to get into the playoffs as part of the new collective bargaining agreement. The season was delayed, but MLB teams were able to play all 162 games.
As part of the new playoff format, the top two teams with the best record in both the American and National Leagues got a bye into the Divisional Series, with one divisional winner hosting a wild card team. The good thing about the new format is that MLB eliminated the one-game wild card. This new playoff format is like the old NFL format, and it works perfectly.
No one knew what to expect once the playoffs came around. In the American League, the New York Yankees (99-63) and Houston Astros (106-56) earned byes, while the Atlanta Braves (101-61) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (111-51) had byes in the National League. The wild card teams were the Seattle Mariners (90-72, Tampa Bay Rays (86-76), Cleveland Guardians (92-70), San Diego Padres (89-73), Philadelphia Phillies (87-75), and the New York Mets (101-61).
Not many reporters gave these wild card teams a shot at making it to the World Series. However, when the playoffs started, the Phillies swept the Central Division champion St. Louis Cardinals, while the San Diego Padres beat the New York Mets, who had 101 wins this year, 2-1 in the Wild Card. Meanwhile, the American League Central Division champion Cleveland Guardians (formerly the Indians) swept the Tampa Bay Rays.
Once the Phillies and Padres made it to the Divisional Series. Once again, some reporters continued to write them off and had every right to think this way when the Phillies played the Atlanta Braves and the Padres took on the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their reasons were simple. In the regular season, the Dodgers dominated the Padres 14-5 in the season series, while Atlanta was 11-8 against the Phillies.
On paper, both the Braves and Dodgers should’ve easily beaten the Phillies and Padres. However, there was a different outcome as the Phillies beat the Braves 3-1, and the Padres beat the Dodgers 3-1 in the NLDS to set up game one between them in the League Championship Series.
Many were quick to blame the byes that the Braves and Dodgers got. Do you hear any of that talk in the NFL when a team gets a bye in the playoffs? The answer is no. The Phillies and the Padres outplayed their opponents and earned the right to play in the NLCS. The same goes for the American League. The New York Yankees and Houston Astros, who had byes into the ALDS, beat the two wild card teams to play each other in the ALCS starting Wednesday.
The body language of the Dodgers and Braves was as if they were ready for vacation and didn’t care to try, while the Phillies and Padres wanted it more. You can’t blame the new playoff format. Blame the players for not playing better when it counts.
This new playoff format is doing precisely what Major League Baseball wants to happen, and that’s chaos. It’s getting people talking about them, and for a good reason.
In the future, the playoff format will get a slight makeover once MLB expands to 32 teams. I think MLB will go the route of the NFL and create four divisions. Instead of three wild cards, there will only be two, and the divisional winners who didn’t get a bye will host the Wild Card round.
With the additional three games for the Wild Card, I would like to see MLB cut some of the regular season games, getting the season down to 142 games and ending interleague play.
Realistically, Major League Baseball should consider cutting six games to make it a 156-game season and finish it on the last weekend of September. Then, the whole month of October should be all about the playoffs. Major League Baseball doesn’t get much credit often, but in this case, kudos to them for getting the new playoff format right.
