Back in 2012, MLB went to a new wild-card format. At that time several baseball people—and fans—were skeptical. However, going into its eighth season, it has become so successful that now most everyone involved in the game from players, managers, and coaches to front-office owners, and even fans, are all for it. There is even talk of expanding it during the next collective bargaining negotiations.
How it Came it About
With the expansion of teams over the years making the playoffs became more challenging for teams. A new playoff system was instituted in 1994 when MLB expanded from two to three divisions in both the American and National leagues. (However, it was first utilized in 1995 because a players’ strike cancelled the 1994 playoffs.) In the new three-division leagues, each league had their division winner and a Wild Card team. This was the team with the most wins after the division winners. Then a wild-card match up was played in the first round between the league leaders in wins and the wild-card teams.
In 2012, this was changed to add a second wild-card team per league and pitted each league’s wild-card teams against one another in a play-in game to win the final playoff spot. The MLB Wild Card game winner advances to the Division Series and plays the team with the best record.
Met With Criticism
There was criticism when the Wild Card was expanded. It was said that it would diminish the significance of the regular season. Under the new—and current—format, the two wild cards in each league play a one-game playoff, with the winner advancing to the Division Series.
Among the criticisms… The possibility of the fifth best team in a league making a run in the postseason. A 162-game schedule coming down to one game. Adding another wild card team and a one-game playoff makes things more hectic and increases the likelihood of a possible an 84-win team winning the World Series. Teams often have to use their best pitchers for that one game and then losing them for a possible Game One in the divisional playoffs. Games have to be managed differently. And on…
Time Changes People’s Minds
Over time, however, fans having seen the current wild card set-up in action know that it is working. It keeps more teams involved in the playoff picture late in the season, giving teams and their fans something to root for. It also creates an incentive to win the division so you do not have to play the one game play-in game, making better teams want to keep playing well.
Also, remember a team could have a fantastic regular season, even have good separation in the standings over the second wild-card team, and end up losing that one game. This makes the end of the season exciting.
And, how about those one-game playoffs? With all the drama of you win or go home, those games have been some of baseball’s best played games. Remember, playoffs exist to shock and thrill everyone. The current wild card system seems to have that shock and thrill element.
Further Wild Card Expansion
There has been talk to expand the Wild Card to add more teams. The most talked about idea is finding a way to make it a three-game series. That way the lower seeded team would have at least one game at home in front of their fans. That would create more revenue. Baseball is a business and wants to make money, so future changes and expansion to this system could come sooner rather than later.
Questions Still Unanswered
There are still questions that need answers. Expanding the Wild Card will make the season longer. This not only puts a strain on players, but the weather conditions in some cities in late October and early November can prove challenging.
There has been talk about going back to a 154-game schedule to compensate for the extra playoff games, but non-playoff the owners would lose revenue.
The collective bargaining agreement ends in December of 2021. More ideas and suggestions will be tossed around from now to then. We will see if players, owners, and the commissioner can agree on adding more games—and how that would look and work—or-leaving it the way it is.
Main Photo: Embed from Getty Images
