There was a flurry of news in the hours before before the first pitch of the 2020 season. Mookie Betts signed a huge extension in Los Angeles, and Nationals star Juan Soto tested positive for COVID-19. Perhaps the biggest news of the day, and the one that changes the landscape of the game the most, is the expanded playoff structure agreed to by MLB and the players association.
Craig Edwards gives his breakdown of the entire deal at FanGraphs, but here are the key points:
- 16 Playoff Teams
- Division winners will receive the top three seeds in each league
- Second-place division finishers will receive the 4-6 seeds in each league
- The two teams in each league with the best records apart from those six will be the seventh and eighth seeds
- The top four seeds in each league will host every game in a best-of-three Wild Card Series to advance to the Division Series
To put this in the context of 2019, the eight AL playoff teams would have been the three division winners — the Astros, Yankees and Twins — followed by the second place division teams — Oakland, Tampa and Cleveland — and then the last two “wild card” teams would be Boston and Texas.