Last month, when the New York Post’s Joel Sherman reported on the league’s exploration of an expanded playoff format, all indications were that the goal was for a 2022 implementation, should an agreement be reached with the MLBPA. Now, however, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that the league is at least considering a shift to a 14-team format in 2020, although he adds that “nothing [is] close to final” on this front. Increased revenue has always surely the primary goal of the proposition, but the shortened 2020 season has unsurprisingly heightened concerns about revenue.
The previously reported iteration of playoff expansion included first-round byes for the top team in each league, a televised event wherein the top teams that do not receive byes select their first-round opponents, and three-game series in the first round of play (as opposed to the current winner-take-all Wild Card games). Adopting that format — or some similarly structured permutation — this season would serve as a litmus test for the viability of that structure moving forward.
In theory, the playoff expansion would prove beneficial for clubs that were non-contenders in 2019 but invested heavily over the winter in an effort to return to the postseason hunt. The White Sox, Rangers, Angels, Diamondbacks and Reds, for instance, all improved considerably over the winter (and, in the Reds’ case, dating back to the 2019 trade deadline). None of that bunch has been regarded as a division favorite, but the addition of two new playoff slots in each league greatly improves their odds of capitalizing on those investments.
As with virtually everything pertaining to baseball at the moment, the potential implementation of an expanded postseason is far from a certainty. But with the two sides at least bracing for the possibility of playing games in empty stadiums (per Heyman), the revenue increase would become more crucial to owners and players alike. It seems inevitable that decreased revenues in 2020 will impact the extent to which clubs are willing to spend in free agency next winter, and recouping some of those dollars could help future market value to align more closely with what we saw in the 2019-20 offseason.
There’s no guarantee that an expanded playoff structure in 2020 would carry over into future seasons, but considering that it was already an agenda item for the league, it stands to reason that a 2020 rollout could have a lasting effect.
Here we go again.
Never tell me the odds.
Going down the only road I’ve ever known?
Turn the page…….
Hey screw it, while we’re on to bad ideas just start the season in the playoffs! Everyone wins on their “investment”!
August 1, season starts and we just have a playoff. Everyone loves playoffs that are 90% garbage right? RIght! That makes the spreadsheet jockeys super happy so let’s please THEM not the fans! Oh boy this is gonna be great, just load everyone up into a playoff spreadsheet and let ’em go nuts. We can give the Dodgers and Yankees first, second, third and fourth round byes because they spent a lot of money. Sound good? Great! After that let’s sort the teams by payroll and assign seedings that way. Nobody wants to see their investment go to waste after all and if a team didn’t SPEND SPEND SPEND let’s put them behind the 8-ball. Make sure a team has to play .600 ball FOREVER to get to the hallowed PLAYOFFS hoooo boy this is sounding better the more I say it out loud!
This definitely wouldn’t hurt the popularity of baseball, everyone loves playoffs. After all the goal is to get to the playoffs right? Right??
Do you have cabin fever or are you always this much of a lunatic?
Phantomofdb, no he isn’t a lunatic. Manfred is a lunatic and baseball fans have every right to be upset. If half the teams can make the playoffs then the 162 game season will demand a less competitive grind. That is not good for the sport and the entire purpose of these changes is to appeal to commercial interests. In other words Manfred is selling out the game of baseball. Fans should be pissed.
relax dude
Watch Trevor Bauer’s video about the playoff format, he’s just as pissed off. Fans have every right to be upset about this.
Link: m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&v=bpDau…
Maybe a little strident, but Dave’s right.
Hehehehe.
I like the expanded playoffs. NFL has expanded over the years, will expand again this year and it has never hurt them. So, stop complaining before I guarantee you’ll watch expanded MLB playoffs!
NFL is known as a real sport while MLB people finally realize it is NBA aka WWE. Astros cheated, Yanks(Jeter and boys) use steroids in 96,98,99,00,09(Arod Cano) to win. Red Sox won 04,07,13 on back of roided Ortiz. Royals were using cameras in 2015 which explains how they were good for one year and inspired Astros cheating.
Hey Johnnydubz, there are way more NFL players on steroids than there have ever been in baseball. It’s just that no one seems to care. There’s a double standard due to the extreme popularity of the NFL. Look at JJ Watt. If he was a baseball player he’d be accused of PED use non-stop.
You mad?
At this point, let’s play 60, 80 or 100 games or whatever we can get in and then do a NCAA playoff bracket of 7 game series.
I dunno, I honestly think 64 MLB teams in a playoff is too many…
it would be pretty interesting to see the champions from both the IL and PCL play in the playoffs with the big league teams.
That would make it 32 teams by adding them. Make every series a best 2 of 3 and start in September.
in a shortened season, if there is one at all, make the playoffs longer and more teams in it. why not, it’d be fun
Could have included the Phillies and Mets as teams that would stand to benefit from an expanded playoff system.
Like the idea, just hoping we get to see baseball at all at this point.
I have no problem with an extended playoffs. I’m just not a fan of their 14 game format.
For this year only, I’d rather see an NBA style 16 team/best of 7 format. 60-90 games isn’t enough to really enough to determine who is best.
Might as well let the teams figure it out in the playoffs.
That would make the season shorter than it already is for the majority of the league that doesn’t make the expanded playoffs. Makes no sense in an already shortened yr.
One of the things that makes MLB so interesting to me is that only a few teams qualify for the playoffs. If 14 teams are in then it’s just like the NBA, and that is an atrocity
I couldn’t agree more.
m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&v=bpDau…
There’s only 30 MLB Franchises. You need 32 if you wanna do 16 teams. Oklahoma and Las Vegas would welcome teams.
If you do 32 you can realign into north south east west like the NFL did.
Anyways 8 teams per league – division winners gets 1-3 others get 4-8. 1 plays 8 first round. Next round is determined by seeding like NFL.
Best of 3 (8 teams playing)
Best of 5 (4 teams playing)
Best of 7 (2 teams playing)
World series best of 7
The last than MLB needs is more teams. They should get rid of several teams that have little fan base and don’t spend any money that trade their good players before they make big money. Talent is getting to watered down on clubs in MLB as it is.
This is the most asinine comment I’ve seen on here. Saying a city can’t have a team because they have a smaller fan base and a little less money is ridiculous. The Rays have one of the smallest fan bases and smallest pocket books of any team, and are perennial playoff contenders. It takes a lot more effort to build a team in TB or Cincinnati than in NY. The talent in the MLB is stronger than ever. You’re out of touch.
The answer to MLB teams trading players before they make big money is similar to what the NBA did.
1. You can sign 5 years vs 4 years with your current team who holds your rights
2. Earnings ceiling.
MLB can
(a) give players incentives to stay with their teams, who can offer them a max contract (salary and years)
(b) cap contracts at 200 mill or around there for max earnings.
In return the MLB does the following:
(a) Get rid of arbitration system. If you draft a college player you get 7 years of control from time they were drafted. If you draft a high school players you get 9 years of control total. International free agents you get 10 years if they are 16 or under. Get rid of of rule 5 draft. Which will put players at free agency around 25 26 27 28 29 or 30 (prime years). Where your team can sign you to say 8 years vs 6 years from competitors.
(b). Increase wages for minor leaguers across the board say 60k for A ball, 80k for AA ball, 100k for AAA ball. Or whatever constitutes an acceptable salary.
Of course this is just a rough outline, but fact remains you can incentives players to stay with teams, cap the max earnings to incentivize teams to keep their own, and also raise the floor on earnings for players while getting rid of arbitration and service time manipulation.
Talent is not “watered down,” give me a break. With a bigger population than ever and more international signings, talent is at an all-time high. You know when it was watered down? Back before integration when only white or light skinned players were eligible to play. And there were almost no foreign-born players.
The NHL and NBA did 16 with 30 teams.
I think that’s where we’re heading, with teams aligned along BOTH geographical and economic parameters (getting the Rays away from their big market brethren in the AL East, e.g.). Gotta get the situations in Tampa and Oakland fixed first, tho.
Add a PCL all star team and IL all star team to make it 32 teams. Give the best AAA players some added exposure and prominently feature the teams they represent. Win-win for the minors and majors.
And the MILB can be in on a playoff bonus.
Baseball will need to be creative if they’re going to have a season. Traditions will need to be thrown out the window. Now really is the perfect time to test something out because they can always fall back on the “we had no choice” excuse if they revert back to the previous system. Just remember, the last time sports were suspended for a length of time, we got the World Series lasting into November and the Super Bowl being played in February.
They could just cancel the season. That’s the smartest move, but money is god.
This idea has coronavirus
Then that means there’s a chance it may die.
why not just 30 team playoffs?
Forget that. Let’s go a full 64 teams. The 30 MLB teams and an assortment of teams from Japan, Korea, Mexico, Venezuela, Netherlands, Dominican Republic, and any other country that wants to play. This year has been surreal enough already and we might as well go full r-word.
a true world series!
you know, actually, with all the issues currently being dealt with, that may be a neat alternative to a regular MLB season. im sure at least a fear NPB teams can hang with the MLB teams.
So you can make the already short regular season even way shorter? Genius
It’s all about recouping the losses in dollars. Money is the motivator.
I mean sure. But doesn’t the most baseball games played = the most money too? The longer all the teams s are playing generates the most revenue and once the playoffs start that’s gone.
Absolutely, Bush1. As of right now, nobody can correctly or accurately predict when/if the season will start. Nonetheless, they might believe they can generate more revenue with, say, a 65 game regular season rather than an 80 game season with an all-teams-are-in baseball format. That hinges on how they set it up, of course. MLB might feel they can generate more $$ through sponsorship of a longer tournament-style and the chance to sell out in Cleveland, Tampa, Miami and Oakland during a time they normally wouldn’t.
There’s no doubt that on a per game basis the playoffs generates more revenue then regular season games. But I still think having all the teams playing as long as possible would generate the most revenue. Plus an expanded playoffs and “even more” shortened regular season would screw over half the league even more who don’t make the playoffs and those teams that don’t get in would make even less revenue. It just seems counterproductive in an already shortened season.
A playoff spot doesn’t mean as much when there isn’t a whole season to play. How many races come down to the last week or two? Expand the playoffs for this year and go back to what they’ve been doing when things get back to normal.
What about the teams that don’t make the expanded playoffs? There season will be even shorter than an already really short year. It makes no sense this yr.
Right now these guys have nothing better to do than come up with (barely) novel ways to ruin baseball. I’d be surprised if they get a chance this year.
Let’s just call the whole season “the playoffs”. There.
best time for it…lol
Wouldn’t an expanded playoffs make the already shortened season shorter for the half of the league that don’t make it in, or are eliminated from it right away? It seems like the worst season to do something like this.
MLB has an uphill climb ahead of them. Outside of the use of video for replays Baseball has remained almost unchanged for nearly 150 years- for ex. players still think it’s fair game to steal signs from 2nd base, pitchers still use foreign substances to spin a ball, they have eye-for-an-eye policy when players get plonked and of course batters can’t show up pitchers once they’ve taken them deep. Then there’s the fans- who, simply put don’t like change. It’s like the Premier League in England, where theres records of people playing organized soccer since 1424! Their game just implemented video replay for goal scoring chances, red cards and penalties- that was the first major change to the game in a millennium. Hugely controversial and most fans hate it! Humans, for the most part just don’t like change esp when it involves a sport they’ve played for at least 150 years.
A short season is already going to have some wacky playoff teams given the smaller sample of games. Combine that with a larger playoff bracket and the 2020 World Series trophy will mean even less than 2017’s.
Well if we’re going out of the realm of possibility then here’s a crazy one. How about the LEAGUE with the most team wins gets 2 extra WC teams, since they’d be the better league, hence more good teams making extended playoffs. Some years it would be AL and some NL, but the weird part is that it would give bad teams (orioles) a reason to suck MORE so that “on the edge” rival teams teams like the Red Sox have a lesser chance of making the playoffs. Different conception, instead of having 14 team playoffs it’d be 12.
Who can we complain to? I’m sure it would fall on deaf ears. Most die hard fans don’t want this change. It’s becoming a season participation trophy.
In its current state more than half of the organizations in MLB right now have already begun the process of rebuilding, are in the process of a rebuild or are deciding on a rebuild. Ask most fans in Seattle, Detroit, Miami, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinatti, Dallas, Chicago, SF and San Diego and I bet a lot of them will tell you they’d love a 2nd WC. It’s the only way some of their teams will see the playoffs. It seems like the same rich and powerful teams make it to the playoffs nearly every year. I’d love to see a small-mid market team make the playoffs but I’m biased. Sadly I’m a Mariners fan.
I actually like the idea. It would keep teams from tanking, which in turn would lead to more fan interest and excitement for a longer period of time throughout the regular season. Teams with the best records get extra rest and after the 1st round bye its down to 4 teams in each league – just like how it would be after the wild card game..
Terrible. We don’t need to water down the playoffs. That’s one of the reasons the NBA sucks
I’M ALL FOR MAKING BASEBALL MORE POPULAR! Tired of seeing MMA, MLS, NBA, etc all pass baseball in popularity. A huge part of this is half the teams have to tank bc they know there is no chance to compete
Tanking- precisely! And it seems like the same rich and powerful teams make the playoffs nearly every year
Who cares? Why do you need baseball to be popular? I, for one, would probably no longer purchase my 4 season tickets if baseball watered down the playoffs further with two more teams.
There won’t be, and shouldn’t be, a 2020 season.
It’s a little funny that a Giants fan says this lol
I don’t understand how a shortened season should equal an expanded post-season. If anything, it should mean a truncated playoffs. I’d much rather have more regular season than more postseason.
That’s exactly what I’ve been saying. It makes zero sense.
If only there was a way to invalidate the entire regular season and leave the championship purely up to luck… oh wait, MLB is investigating the opportunity