Published on October 29, 2023 by Sébastien Berrouard
The current MLB playoff format has brought us all kinds of surprises during this fall dance. This made some people say that certain things might need to be reviewed, especially regarding the days off granted to the best teams in the regular season.
However, this is not the opinion of Commissioner Rob Manfred.
I don’t think what happened this year is so contrary to history. Since 1980, only 11% of teams that have won 100 games have won the World Series. I mean, that’s kind of how the playoffs are in baseball, and frankly, that’s how I think they should be. In my opinion, the format works pretty well.
When the current collective bargaining agreement was last negotiated, the players’ union proposed that the division champions would start their series with a 1-0 lead without even a shot being thrown. We are not there yet and it is better this way.
If the big man of major baseball does not want to touch the series format for the moment, the latter makes it a priority to restore the importance of starting pitchers. Eureka!
To achieve this, the plan would be to reduce the total number of pitchers in a lineup to 12 (teams can field 13 right now) with the goal of avoiding games that are started by relievers as much as possible, such as this. was the case again this fall.
I think historically, starting pitchers have been some of the biggest stars in sports. And I think the way pitchers are being used right now has caused a decrease in that star quality for some of our starters. I think this is an issue we should talk about.
Although this should be done immediately, we will have to wait until at least 2025 to see it.
Rob Manfred
