Cardinal fans who have been conditioned to believe watching their team play postseason series is a birthright might scoff at such a notion. If the one-game wild-card that was debuted in 2012 is so worrisome, simply win more. The risk that accompanies MLB's play-in game should become motivation to avoid it, not evidence to change the rules. And the Cards, after all, turned their 2012 wild-card game into an NLCS appearance.
But Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates, the best outfielder in what is believed to be baseball's best outfield, restarted the debate Monday. The expert in wild-card agony spent part of the day before Pittsburgh's first official workout of 2016 campaigning to change how his team ended the past two seasons.