Is it time to replace the MLB wild card format?
If a Major League Baseball team earns a wild card spot, they are guaranteed just one game of playoff baseball. It may be time for MLB to expand the wild card game to a series or adopt the new NBA format.
Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein has proposed a three game wild card series that would include a double header, according to the Chicago Tribune. Playing two games in one day would eliminate concerns that the divisional winners would “go cold” with prolonged rest, Epstein said.
As the 2015 regular season comes to a close and October baseball draws near, a potential wild card match up between Epstein’s Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates becomes more likely.
The Pirates currently own the second best record in the National League with four more wins than two N.L. division leaders, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. Despite a superior record, the Pirates could face early elimination at the hands of the Cubs, who also maintain a better record than the Mets and Dodgers.
The Mets and their inferior record would own home field advantage in a match up with the Cubs or Pirates in the divisional round. More importantly, New York would avoid the risk of being eliminated in a play-in wild card game, despite their record.
MLB teams play 162 games over the course of six months. Should one game determine who advances?
Perhaps not, but as Epstein notes, a one game, winner-take-all match up makes for good television. If MLB wants to keep that format intact, perhaps they could move to a playoff rankings system recently installed by the NBA.
The association announced last week that a division winner will not be seeded higher than a non-division winner with a better record.
“The Northwest Division champion Portland Trail Blazers earned a No. 4 seed in the wildly competitive West despite finishing with four fewer wins than the No. 5 Memphis Grizzlies and No. 6 San Antonio Spurs, both from the Southwest Division,” Freeman wrote. “That setup gave the Grizzlies a relatively easy first-round match up against the injury plagued Blazers and saddled the defending champion Spurs with a very difficult series against the Los Angeles Clippers.”
If MLB adopted this format (with fewer teams), deserving clubs would benefit from home field advantage and avoid a play-in game based on merit rather than location.
Either way, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred may need to take a hard look at the current system and create a playoff that truly rewards the league’s best ball clubs.
