MLB, MLBPA Agree to 16-Team Expanded Playoffs for 2020 Season

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have agreed to an expanded, 16-team postseason for the 2020 campaign.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post offered additional details:

Jayson Stark of The Athletic noted that the first-round series in the 16-team format will be best-of-three at the home of the higher seed. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that the top two seeds from each division would automatically qualify for the playoffs, with two wild-card teams added on top of that. 

The divisional series will be a best-of-five tilt before the league championship series and World Series move to a best-of-seven format. 

Sherman outlined some of the more interesting potential outcomes of the new, one-year layout:

"You know what, 2020 baseball, whatever they decide I assume will be best for the game," New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone told Nightengale. "Whatever the rules are, whatever the scenario is, hopefully we'll be a part of it."

One major benefit of an expanded postseason in a 60-game, shortened season is that teams who might hit their groove a bit later in the season will still have a shot at making the postseason. After 60 games last year, for instance, the defending champion Washington Nationals were just 27-33.

That record may not be good enough to get them into a 16-team playoff, but the odds that a good team will be punished for a rough start are diminished slightly by more clubs qualifying for the postseason. 

The 2020 season, if nothing else, will be a memorable one. Nobody quite knows how a shortened campaign and expanded playoff will play out. It promises to be interesting, at the very least.