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The MLBPA and MLB have reportedly agreed to expand the playoffs in 2020 to 16 teams. The agreement is pending ratification by MLB’s owners, which is expected to occur shortly.
Under the terms of the reported agreement, the player’s playoff bonus pool will be $50 million — the amount players had been requesting, and twice what the owners had been offering previously. The top two teams in each division will make the playoffs, with the top two remaining teams in each league being the final two entrants.
Buster Olney said earlier today that there had been discussions of having the three division winners in each league get to choose which opponent of the remaining five teams in their respective leagues they would play in the first round, and have it announced live in a selection show. That’s the sort of thing I would hate in a normal season, but for 2020 I would have no objection to it.
The first round would reportedly be a best of three, with all three games played at the higher seeds home park, which would eliminate travel issues and minimize the degree to which the postseason would have to be extended, calendar-wise.
UPDATE — It is official. MLB has announced that eight teams per league will make the playoffs. The first round will be best at three, all played at the home park of the higher seed.