NEW YORK (AP) Major League Baseball and the players’ union agreed
Thursday to expand the playoffs from 10 teams to 16 for the
pandemic-delayed season, a decision that makes it likely teams with
losing records will reach the postseason.
The agreement was reached hours before the season opener between
the New York Yankees and World Series champion Washington
Nationals. The deal applied only for 2020 and included a surprise
benefiting the Yankees the most: Collection of baseball’s luxury
tax will be suspended this year, a person familiar with the details
told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity
because no announcement was made.
Sixteen of the 30 teams will advance to a best-of-three first
round: the first- and second-place teams in every division and the
next two clubs by winning percentage in each league. Those winners
move on to the best-of-five Division Series, where the usual format
resumes. The final four teams are in best-of-seven League
Championship Series, and the pennant winners meet in the
best-of-seven World Series.
”It’s such a unique season, why not try a little something
different and make it as exciting as possible,” said Colorado
shortstop Trevor Story, whose team has never won a World Series
title. ”I know it’s going to be such a sprint with the 60-game
season; adding more playoff teams will just add to the fire and the
excitement and the fandom around the game. Anything can happen in a
60-game season. I’m all for it.”
In each league, the division winners will be seeded 1-3, the
second-place teams 4-6 and the teams with the next two-best records
7-8, which means up to four teams in one division could be in the
postseason. The first round pairings will be 1 vs. 8, 2-7, 3-6 and
4-5.
”This season will be a sprint to a new format that will allow more
fans to experience playoff baseball,” baseball Commissioner Rob
Manfred said in a statement.
The higher seed in the first round will host all games from Sept.
29 to Oct. 2.
”For me personally, a little less than ideal that there’s not more
weight given to the division winners,” Gerrit Cole said after
winning his Yankees debut, 4-1 at Nationals Park in a game called
in the sixth inning because of rain.
Tiebreaker games, which have produced famous home runs by Bobby
Thomson and Bucky Dent, are eliminated. Ties would be broken by
head-to-head record, followed by better record within a team’s
division and record in the last 20 games within the division. If
still tied, the standard would be last 21 games within a division,
then 22, etc.
Teams could finish the regular season with differing games played;
regular-season postponements would be made up at the discretion of
Manfred.
As part of the deal, MLB agreed to guarantee a postseason pool that
would be $50 million: $20 million if the first round is played and
$10 million for each additional round. The postseason pool usually
comprises ticket money from the postseason, but baseball
anticipates playing the entire year in empty ballparks due to the
coronavirus.
”The opportunity to add playoff games in this already-abbreviated
season makes sense for fans, the league and players,” union head
Tony Clark said in a statement. ”We hope it will result in highly
competitive pennant races as well as exciting additional playoff
games to the benefit of the industry.”
ESPN was given rights to seven of eight first-round series and TBS
the other for no additional money as a makeup for missed games.
ESPN and TBS were to have split the two wild-card games in the
original format.
The change means 53% of the 30 teams reach the playoffs. If eight
teams qualified for the playoffs in each league from 1995 through
2019, 46 teams at or below .500 would have made it, according to
the Elias Sports Bureau, an average of just under two per season.
Those teams included 25 from the AL.
There would have been only three seasons in which all playoff teams
would have had winning records, Elias said: 2000, 2003 and 2009.
”From a selfish, White Sox standpoint, I’m certainly in favor of
it just for the mere fact that it enhances the possibilities that
this group’s going to get exposed to October baseball,” Chicago
White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. ”We’ve talked over the
years of this rebuild and into this next stage that learning how to
win is part of that. And certainly learning how to win in October
is very much part of getting us to our ultimate goals.”
Two additional NFL teams reach the playoffs this season for a total
of 14 of 32 teams (44%). Sixteen of 30 (53%) usually go to the
playoffs in the NBA and 16 of 31 in the NHL (52%), which expands to
32 franchises next season.
MLB long restricted its postseason to just the pennant winners
facing each other in the World Series. Postseason teams doubled to
four with the split of each league into two divisions in 1969, then
to eight with the realignment to three divisions and the addition
of a wild card in 1995, a year later than planned due to a players’
strike. The postseason reached 10 with the addition of a second
wild card and a wild-card round in 2012.
The 2006 St. Louis Cardinals hold the mark for the lowest winning
percentage of a World Series champion, according to Elias, after
going 83-78 for a .516 clip. The lowest percentage for a pennant
winner was .509 for the 1973 New York Mets at 82-79.
”There’s no question that by definition, it gives you more of a
safety net,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. ”I hope they they
continue to put a premium on winning divisions.”
The new format created a minimum 14 additional postseason games and
as many as 22 if each first-round series goes the distance. The
plan was part of MLB’s proposal to restart the season, but the
union ended those talks June 22 and told MLB to unilaterally
announce a schedule. That move preserved the union’s right to file
a grievance claiming MLB did not negotiate in good faith to play as
long a regular season as economically feasible, subject to
conditions set in a March 26 agreement between the feuding sides.
MLB renewed the proposal on Tuesday.
”It would be a great way to keep fan bases engaged throughout the
entire season,” Milwaukee Brewers star Christian Yelich said.
”You’d have a really tight race all the way down to the last day
of the season. I think there’d be a lot of teams in it within a
game or two of each other going into that final day.”
—
AP Sports Writers Pat Graham, Steve Megargee and Andrew Seligman
contributed to this report.
***Report courtesy of Metro Source Networks***
