Is it time to revisit the MLB Playoff Structure?

The Wild Card game has been fun but it doesn’t showcase the best MLB teams

Seven years ago, the MLB introduced the Wild Card Game, adding another team to their playoff picture. Two of the 12 games have gone to extra innings and the home team (which would have made the playoffs under the old rules regardless) is only 5–7 in those games.

This new format has worked out well for MLB because more teams are involved in playoff races as the season comes to a close. It creates an extra MLB game for revenue and in 2014 the winners of the Wild Card Game met in the World Series with the Giants beating the Royals in seven games.

But is it time for a change to the win-or-go-home game?

Also, am I only writing this because the Yankees are headed for their second straight Wild Card game as the home team and third in four years?

Yeah, probably.

The Yankees lost in 2015 to Houston and beat Minnesota last season. Those are two games they wouldn’t have played under the old format.

This season is a little different, though. The Yankees currently have 97 wins, the third most in all of baseball. The A’s will finish with 95-plus wins as well. Meanwhile, the Indians will coast into the playoffs barely breaking 90 wins and we’ve only covered the AL teams. The Cubs currently have the best record in the NL at 91–66 and the second wild card winner likely won’t break 90 wins.

The MLB has an extremely unbalanced schedule with teams playing division rivals 76 times during a season. They play every other team in their league six or seven times and have 20 inter-league games.

The Indians get to play 76 games vs the Twins/Tigers/White Sox/ Royals, those teams are a combined 253- 374 (.403). This makes the Indians’ season look even less impressive and less deserving of an automatic bid to the Division Series, compared to the Cardinals who are .5 games out of the second Wild Card position but their division has a much better winning percentage (.521).

One option would be to change the unbalanced schedule. Teams would still play 50 or so games in their division, but add another 25 games in their league.

A more drastic move would be to remove divisions all together. Everyone plays the same amount of games against the entire league. This would amount to about 10 games vs every team in the league (still leaving 22 games for inter-league play). Then, the top five teams make the playoffs with bottom two playing in the Wild Card Game. This would make the Wild Card game a matchup of the actual two wild card teams.

Logistically this could be a nightmare for the schedule makers, and the Players Association would probably not approve of the travel required. MLB loves their rivalries, but sometimes playing the Red Sox 19 times a year loses its luster. Wouldn’t 10 games make those games all the more important for the fans?

Maybe they simply just re-seed the playoff teams. So this year, the Indians would play in the Wild Card Game no matter what because both the Yankees and A’s have a better record than them. Their reward for winning the division can be getting home field in the Wild Card game.

MLB isn’t likely to change anything for the next few years, but it just seems unfair that the Yankees or A’s will go home after one playoff game after winning 95-plus games during a grueling seven month MLB season.

Thoughts? Let me hear them on Twitter @AngelSteve89