MLB Playoff Expansion Format: MLB Announces Sweeping Change to Postseason

For a game that has prided itself on tradition, the latest changes in Major League Baseball's postseason format show that baseball is looking toward the future and essentially forgetting about the past.

According to ESPN, MLB and the union agreed to a new 10-team playoff format on Friday, allowing for one more wild-card team from each league beginning in October.

The division winners will be awarded a first-round bye, while the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds from each league will battle in a one-game playoff to advance to the next round.

The change has been met with mixed reaction.

If the playoff format was enacted last season, the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox would have made the postseason.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez joked on Thursday, per ESPN, "I would've taken it last year."

But David Ortiz, whose team would have made the playoffs, wasn't so hot about the idea:

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One game? That's kind of crazy. You know how many things we've got to move around and pack for one game? It'd make more sense for two wild cards to play at least a two-out-of-three series while the other teams take a break for three days because they won their divisions.

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Catcher Mike Napoli, whose AL West champion Texas Rangers were defeated by the wild-card St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series in 2011, thought it was a good move for baseball:

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That's the way it should be, I think. You play 162 games with the goal in mind of winning the division. You want to make the playoffs and this gives another team a chance to do that, but the division is the big goal.

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It's going to be interesting how things play out this season. In the American League, I see the Red Sox, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Angels fighting for three playoff spots. The Angels, of course, have added Albert Pujols this offseason, a major move that figures to shake things up in the league.

As for the National League, I see the Cardinals, Braves, Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds battling for three playoff spots. The Cardinals and Brewers have both lost major sluggers Pujols and Prince Fielder, respectively.

One thing's for sure: The days of sticking to tradition are over. Baseball has moved on to a new horizon, whether it be bright or dim.

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