New MLB Playoff Format

Written by: Evan Ash

Published: July 21, 2020

I spend what is probably an unhealthy amount of time thinking about baseball.  Usually I am thinking about ways to make the game more fun and interesting for fans.  Looking forward to the upcoming (hopefully), COVID-19-shortened, 60-game season I thought to myself, “what if the regular season were two of these?”  And fully down the rabbit hole I went.

The Format

• The regular season would be divided into two halves with the All-Star Game between, and each half would be 60 games (or 70 or 80, but the number of games is not important to this discussion).

• Teams would qualify for the postseason based on the standings after each half

  • 3 division winners and 1 wild card team in each League

Scenarios

• If 1 team wins its division in both halves, they advance to the Division Series

• If 1 team wins the wild card in both halves, they advance to the Division Series

• If 2 different teams win the same division, they play each other in a best-of-three to decide who advances

  • All three games will be in the same city in three consecutive days

  • Home field advantage in these three games would be determined by head-to-head record for both halves of the season and then by record within the division if a second tiebreaker is needed

• If 2 different teams win a wild card in the 2 halves, they would play a single game to determine who moves on

  • Home field advantage in thise game is determined by which team has a better record for both halves of the season combined

• If a team wins its division in one half of the season and the wild card in the other half, that team keeps their half-season division title and the wild card spot goes to the team in second place in the wild card standings

• In the event of a tie for any of the 8 possible playoff spots, a single-game tiebreaker would be played only if it determines which of the two tied teams is in the playoffs or out of the playoffs. All ties are broken to determine division winners first. A tiebreaker game counts as a regular-season game

  • If two teams tie for a division in one half of the season but both would qualify for the wild card then there would be no tiebreaker game but instead the tiebreakers discussed earlier for home field advantage would be used

• The 4 teams that advance (either by winning their division in both half seasons or by the wild card round) would be seeded 1-4 based on combined record (the winner of the Wild Card Game would always be seeded 4th. The playoffs would then resume the format that we are accustomed to with a 5-game Division Series round, a 7-game League Championship Series round, and a 7-game World Series.

Application

I wanted to take a look at how this situation would work if it were applied to actual standings from the past.  I decided to use the end-of-season records from 2014 and 2019 to represent each half of a hypothetical season.  2014 because the Orioles were really good that year and 2019 because it was last year.  Obviously, these standings reflect whole seasons, not half seasons, and are only used as data in this hypothetical scenario.

First, I looked at the American League and turns out it was no fun.  The four playoff teams from each hypothetical half season are all different (I did not think this would happen when I chose these two seasons). Orioles @ Yankees, Tigers @ Twins, and Angels @ Astros would be our best-of-three matchups; and the Athletics would host the Royals in the Wild Card Game.  The American League playoff bracket is shown below.

The National League, however, was completely different and it fully illustrates this proposed format.  The Dodgers and the Cardinals won their division in each half season so they advance to the Division Series.  The Nationals and the Braves both won their division in a half of the season and they will play each other in a best-of-three in order to go to the Division Series.  The Giants and the Pirates tied for the wild card in the first half so they would play a single game tiebreaker to determine which team goes to the playoffs.  This game would take place immediately after the conclusion of the first half and before the All-Star Game.  Even though the Nationals won the wild card in the second half, that spot in the playoffs goes to the Brewers because the Nationals had already earned a playoff berth by winning their division in the first half.  The National League playoff bracket is shown below.

If Major League Baseball adopted this format for the regular season and the playoffs, the sport would be even more exciting to follow. Every game is that much more important with fewer games to determine who qualifies for the playoffs. There would be more teams in the mix to make the postseason with more ways to get in, while also maintaining (and even increasing) the importance of the regular season. Really good teams that win their division in both halves of the season aren't subjected to the possibility of being bounced from the playoffs early because of the randomness of a short series or single game. Conversely, teams that barely squeak into the playoffs can be eliminated in a single game, and teams that are unable to maintain their division dominance throughout the whole season would make it harder for themselves later on.

It is important that Major League Baseball continue to engage with and make the game exciting for its fans. They shouldn't take for granted that baseball is "The Great American Pastime" and that the fans will always be there to support them. That relationship, like any other relationship, much be constantly maintained and evolved or it could fade away. An updated season format is just one of many ways that the sport could be improved.

Major League Baseball: you can thank me later.