Covering the MLB and MLBPA negotiations to bring baseball back in 2020 was a particularly bumpy ride. In all of the focus on contentious salary negotiations one item that got a lot less coverage was the prospect of an expanded playoff format for 2020. When the salary negotiations ended with MLB imposing a 60-game season the prospect of those expanded playoffs seemed to end as well. This piece from the New York Times captures how the expanded playoffs were one of the victims of those negotiations:
For a while, it seemed as if this year’s postseason was destined to be like a preschooler’s birthday party, where everyone in the class gets invited.