The latest Collective Bargaining Agreement proposal from Major League Baseball includes changes to both the regular season and postseason. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that MLB would cut the regular season to 154 games while making significant changes to the division series.
The regular-season impact is fairly minimal from a team-building standpoint, as it’s simply eight fewer games on the schedule. With the grind of the regular season, teams will build their roster to get through 150+ games. Additionally, eight fewer games in the 186-day season would allow for more rest days for players.
However, the bigger impact will come in both the Wild Card and Division Series. The proposed changes are especially aimed at the latter. The timing of the announcement is not a coincidence, with three of the four series wrapping up on October 7.
How the Changes Impact the Division Series
Expanding the series to seven games will likely result in a much different strategy in terms of roster construction and usage. With more games, the penalty for a reliever facing the same hitters three to four times in a series becomes an underlying factor.
One such example came in the Brewers vs. Padres NLDS. Right-hander Abner Uribe faced Manny Machado in all four games of the series. In the fourth and final matchup, Machado barreled a 100 MPH sinker for a potential game-tying and series-flipping home run. Garrett Mitchell’s leaping grab prevented that outcome and ultimately slammed the door shut.
With that potential risk factor, it will impact how teams utilize their bullpen. It also increases the urgency for teams to wrap up the series as soon as possible.
By moving to a seven-game format in the division series, it makes the MLB postseason similar to other major sports league playoffs. The NBA and NHL utilize a best-of-seven format for all their playoff rounds.
What the Proposal Says About Postseason Seeding
Also part of that proposal was re-seeding in the postseason. It will be interesting what the changes will be from an initial seeding perspective. Division winners are seeded higher than Wild Card teams under the current system.
If MLB shakes up postseason seeding, the question becomes how much does it weigh record vs. winning the division? The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox won 93 and 87 games, but were seeded lower than the 85-win Cleveland Guardians. The Yankees and Red Sox played in the Wild Card Series while the Guardians enjoyed a bye.
The proposal says that higher seeds get to choose their opponents. That’s probably not a viable idea, but it does open the door for discussion on re-seeding once teams advance in the postseason. The likely solution is that MLB adopts a similar format to the NFL playoffs, where the highest-seeded team plays the lowest-seeded team available.
In three of the four division series, the higher-seeded team won. The only potential upset remaining is whether the White Sox can finish off the Guardians. It’s worth noting that the two teams finished one win apart, with Chicago winning the regular-season series, 7-6.
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