The fact that the 107-win San Francisco Giants have to play the 106-win Los Angeles Dodgers this early in the postseason does not sit well with Giants third baseman Evan Longoria.
While speaking to reporters on Thursday, Longoria expressed a sentiment shared by many observers: The MLB should alter its postseason format.
“I feel like this may also be like a series or a moment where baseball may have to think about restructuring the way that the playoffs happen,” he said. “106 and 107 wins doesn’t feel like a [divisional series] matchup, you know? Especially because the season is so long for two teams to win that many games and then one of them to have to go home this early.”
When Longoria was asked how he would restructure the playoffs if he had the power to do so, he mentioned expanding the number of teams in the playoffs and re-seeding the playoff teams based on regular season records.
"I’m always for having more teams in the playoffs. I think it engages more fanbases," he said. "I mean, obviously we had those discussions with the league before, and that’s something that I think is potentially always on the table. But it seems like some sort of ranking system based on wins, and I know all that’s going to take realigning the divisions."
During the shortened 2020 season, 16 of the league's 30 teams ended up making the playoffs, and it seems likely that the postseason will expand next season when the new collective bargaining agreement goes into effect.
One reportedly popular proposal is expanding the playoff field from 10 teams to 14 teams, with three division winners and four wild card teams in each league. Under that proposal, the team with the best record in each league will get a first-round bye, and the remaining six teams will play each other in a three-game Wild Card series, with the other two divisional winners and the top Wild Card team hosting all three games.
That proposal also allows for division winners to pick their Wild Card opponents, which would be a potentially spicy wrinkle to say the least.
If that postseason format had been adopted for the 2021 season, the Giants would have a first-round bye while the Brewers, Braves and Dodgers would all host three-game Wild Card series. The Brewers, as the highest-seeded division winner (besides the Giants), would get to pick which one of the Cardinals, Reds or Phillies they'd prefer to face. The Braves would get second pick, and whichever team goes unpicked (likely the Cardinals) would face the Dodgers, the top Wild Card team.
However, a proposal like that would still end with the top-seeded Giants facing the Dodgers in the NLDS, assuming Los Angeles beats the Cardinals in a three-game series. The only ways to prevent the Giants and Dodgers from facing each other in the NLDS would be re-seeding based on regular season record, or allowing the Giants to pick their opponent after the Wild Card round.
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