The proposal, which would increase the postseason to 16 teams instead of 10, would help the league recoup some broadcast revenue as it loses out on ticket sales.
Hours before starting a season unlike any other, Major League Baseball and the players’ union tentatively agreed on Thursday to an expanded playoff system in which 16 of the league’s 30 teams will qualify for the postseason. The new format — which covers only the 2020 season — will eliminate the wild-card play-in games, which had been held since 2012, when the playoff field was expanded to 10 teams from eight. Now, M. L. B. will begin the postseason with eight best-of-three matchups (four in each league), before the usual best-of-five division series and best-of-seven league championship and World Series rounds. The agreement was confirmed by a person with direct knowledge of it who was granted anonymity because it was still awaiting official approval by the owners, which was said to be a formality. Under the plan, the World Series would still end in October, which had been a priority for the league as it tries to squeeze in a season as quickly as possible amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. If every series goes the distance, M. L. B. would play 65 postseason games in all, up from a maximum of 43 under the previous format. The eight playoff teams per league will include the three division leaders, the three second-place teams in each division and the two teams with the next-best records. With only 60 regular-season games this year — and teams unable to sell tickets, at least initially — owners had a strong interest in generating additional revenue by adding more postseason games to sell to networks.
