At this point, it feels inevitable that at some point in the not-so-distant future Major League Baseball will expand the playoffs from its current 10-team format. Even before the pandemic-shortened 2020 that saw the league and the player’s union agree to a 16-team playoffs, the league has been laying the groundwork to add playoff teams. Although 2021 has reverted back to the 10-team format agreed upon in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, it’s clear that the league will be making this a priority in the upcoming CBA negotiations, as the league has already sold the television rights to a round of the playoffs that do not yet exist.
If MLB expands the playoffs, they should borrow from the NBA’s play-in model
