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Major League Baseball and the Players Association are having last-minute discussions about expanding the playoffs to 16 teams for the 2020 season, reports Jon Heyman. Included in those discussions is the idea that division winners will be able to choose their opponents during a televised selection show, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney.
The 2020 regular season begins Thursday night, and as Heyman reports, both sides would have to come to an agreement before the first launch, meaning there is little time to reach an agreement. ESPN’s Marly Rivera reports that the union has approved the plan for the expanded playoffs (for the 2020 postseason only), and the deal is awaiting ratification by major league owners.
The current playoff structure, which has been in place since 2012, has 10 playoff teams: six division champions and two wild card participants per league. A 16-team field would likely add three more wild teams per league and increase the playoffs to four full rounds. Currently, the postseason consists of two wild card games, the LDS round, the LCS round, and the World Series.
Negotiations between players and owners have been the story for much of the close. The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) closed spring training in March and delayed Opening Day by approximately four full months. The players had been fishing for a longer regular season, but thanks to the pandemic and the icy pace of league-side negotiations, the 2020 season will span just 60 games in the regular season. Commissioner Rob Manfred, under the terms of a March 26 agreement on players’ wages, had the power to implement a regular-season structure. The playoff expansion, however, requires union approval, and players aren’t going to do that without a significant return of property. Perhaps those returns would take the form of more of the postseason revenue for the players.
Another concern is whether a fall wave of the virus could disrupt the postseason. Since much of MLB’s national television revenue is tied to the playoffs, it’s a big concern. Extending the postseason more deeply in the fall would necessarily increase the risk of a second closure before a champion was crowned. The relatively low positive case rate during reopened spring training may have emboldened MLB and the players on this front.
Whatever the case, there is very little time to craft what would undoubtedly be a complicated and layered arrangement. However, both sides seem to be giving it a try.
