In a shocking twist that could turn the fortunes of the sport of baseball and the MLB on its head, a reported change is coming to the structure of how the MLB postseason picture plays out. And shockingly enough, the motive behind it seems to be a financial one.
According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the MLB is looking to potentially increase the number of teams that make the playoffs each season from five to seven in each league, as well as giving the team with the best record a first-round bye into the Divisional Series, with the two teams that have the best remaining records remaining getting to choose their first-round opponents.
Oh, and it would all be broadcast on TV, similar to that of an NCAA Selection show, or even better, an episode of reality television (a la Big Brother or Survivor).
Without even diving into what could happen, what should happen, and what these changes even mean for the sport, the reasoning for this should be explained first.
The current broadcast television deal with Fox runs until 2028, which gives them monopolizing rights on broadcasting every game in the World Series, two Division Series, and one League Championship. Locked up for another eight years makes it hard to justify that side of television being a driving factor in this potential decision, but it is the other side of the coin that makes this conversation very, very interesting.
ESPN and Turner Sports have deals that both run out in 2021, and these potential postseason changes are projected to be put into play starting for the 2022 season, which in essence would foster a bidding war before the season were to begin, helping the MLB yet again come out on top monetarily while driving down the overall value of their produced product on the diamond.
In terms of a new broadcasting agreement, ESPN would seem to have an advantage, seeing as how they can broadcast over the air through ABC, which is something that Turner cannot do. Sherman also referenced a potential third side jumping into the fray, as streaming services, like YouTube TV, DAZN, Amazon, and others, would all have the opportunity to play towards the shift in broadcast interest for its viewership.
$5.1 billion for seven years ($728.5 million/season) of broadcasting rights is what the MLB and ESPN agreed to last October, which represented a huge increase in contract value. For the deal that was slated to run out in 2021, Fox was forking over $4.2 billion for eight years, equaling out to be $525 million per season.
An interesting sliver of hope here is that with more teams comes more games, and with more games comes more playoff money, meaning that each player’s cut of the postseason money pie would potentially grow, depending on how big the pie ends up being, starting in 2022. While that added source of income will by no means find its way filtering down to the minor leagues, which needs it the most, this financial aspect of it certainly will be pushed down the throats of each and every member of the MLB Players Association and its reps if it reaches that far in the process.
New Postseason Format
American & National League Postseason Forecast
- 14 teams total, 7 per each league
- Top team from each league earns a Wild Card round bye into the AL/NLDS
- Next 2 teams with the best records in each league receive the chance to choose their WC round opponents (with the 3rd-best team getting the final, unchosen team as their opponent)
- 3 remaining teams with the best records in each league (including 2 that choose their opponents) each host one of the three worst postseason entrants in a best-of-three matchup
If we were to apply the above scenario to the postseason picture from last season, the following would have been the teams that would have made it into the playoffs.
AL-
Houston Astros
New York Yankees
Minnesota Twins
Oakland Athletics
Tampa Bay Rays
Cleveland Indians
Boston Red Sox
NL-
Los Angeles Dodgers
Atlanta Braves
St. Louis Cardinals
Washington Nationals
Milwaukee Brewers
New York Mets
Arizona Diamondbacks
Obviously the only two changes that occurred for both leagues were the introductions of two more teams at the bottom, as well as the top teams earning a first-round bye. Would the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox have truly changed up the postseason outcomes in the AL? Would the New York Mets and the Arizona Diamondbacks really have had enough firepower to knock off some of the higher seeds in the NL? Hard to tell, but it would have made for some interesting matchups nonetheless.
By giving the top seeds in each league a chance to move onto the next round, unimpeded, is something that integrates a bit of the NFL playoff format into baseball, which seems to be more neutral than anything. But for the next three highest seeds remaining, their choices of opponents will easily dictate the course of the playoffs, especially in the proposed television format that was rumored to be included in this packaged deal.
Major Takeaways
Attendance across the MLB was down in 2019 for the seventh consecutive season, which is a far cry from what the sport of baseball used to mean to the United State of America. With current MLB commissioner Rob Manfred seemingly forgetting that he represents both the players and the franchises in his role, money has dominated each and seemingly every conversation that he has ever had while leading this sport to its demise.
And while it is true that the sport of baseball is currently experiencing an identity crisis that is apparently littered with cheating players, coaches and organizations, it is the entire sport and its governing body that is forcing its teams to take ulterior approaches to try and win. Money means only so much for players who are trying to play a kid’s game for a living, but money means everything when it is the driving force of ruining what has meant so much to so many kids everywhere across the world.
The timeliness of this ‘leak’ coming out is definitely suspect, to say the least, and maybe the MLB is using this to try and get away from what the Astros, Red Sox, and seemingly countless other organizations have partaken in over the course of the past few years, cheating their ways to the top of the sport. Maybe baseball is not what we thought it was and will never be what it used to be.
All that we can know for sure is that the changes that have been running rampant throughout this sport after Manfred took over for Bud Selig have been slowly stripping away the image of baseball, something that all commissioners, coaches, fans and most importantly players have been building for over 100 years.
If this is the first stone that broke the back of baseball, then let it be known that Manfred was the one that cast it – the unfortunate victims of this will be the fans and players of the game, students of baseball, some whom have given it all that they have got.
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