Major League Baseball’s expansion to the 12-team postseason format in 2022 has been a resounding success. The increased number of wild-card seeds has kept more clubs in the hunt deeper into September – three games currently separate seven teams for the final AL spot – yet it hasn’t diminished the regular season by allowing too many into October. Though the format is solid, it has one major flaw: the teams that finish with the best regular-season records don’t necessarily get the biggest advantage. MLB needs
to address this playoff-seeding problem when it discusses the new collective bargaining agreement with the players’ association this winter. Under the current system, each division winner is locked into a top-three seed, with the two best records from those teams receiving a bye to the Division Series. That means teams with superior records could face a more difficult path through the playoffs – a scenario that’s played out in each of the last three seasons and would repeat itself this year if the postseason started
today. Despite moving to a more balanced schedule in recent years, MLB still wishes to reward division winners with a postseason spot. That’s fine to stick with, even if it can be problematic. But to ensure competitive integrity, the league should give division winners an automatic playoff spot while basing all seeding on the teams’ records. Under that format, the 2026 AL playoffs would look like this: The same six teams make the postseason, but the paths are dramatically different. This revised system emphasizes the
importance of regular-season performance and makes every game more valuable. It also protects teams in loaded divisions from being at a disadvantage come October and ensures that clubs in weaker divisions aren’t being rewarded just because of geography. The playoff seeding has been an issue for several years now. In 2025, the Yankees and Red Sox had to play a wild-card series despite posting the AL’s second- and fourth-best records, respectively. Meanwhile, the Tigers and Guardians, finishing with the two worst records among the postseason
teams, played in the other wild-card series. The Mariners also received a bye that year, even though they finished four games back of the Yankees, who actually tied for the best record in the AL. Reseeding after each round is also necessary. The team with the best regular-season record should theoretically have the easiest path to the World Series, while the team with the worst record should have the most difficult. If the goal is to make every regular-season game more meaningful and guarantee that
each team’s path to winning a championship is based on performance and merit, this is the way to move forward.
MLB, playoff seeding, 12-team postseason, collective bargaining agreement, players’ association, AL wild card, division winners, reseeding, Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, Guardians, Mariners
So basically the better teams get screwed? MLB just loves chaos I guess.
Wait I thought division winners always get the easiest stuff. This article sounds like they don’t, which is kinda wild. Like why even win your division then?
I don’t follow all the seeding math but I remember when the Yankees got in as a wild card even with the best record or whatever. Isn’t that the whole point of “bye” though? Sounds like they’re changing it after people complained for like 3 years straight.
Red Sox/Yankees being a wild card when they’re “best records”?? That makes no sense. Also why are they talking about 2026 like the season is already decided lol. Just make it so whoever wins more games actually goes straight farther, not these top-3 seed locks. MLB will probably mess it up anyway.