MLB Postseason expansion benefits ESPN

MILWAUKEE, WI - OCTOBER 05: Post Season batters warm up area during Game 2 of the 2018 National League Divisional Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Colorado Rockies on October 5, 2018, at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI. (Photo by Lawrence Iles/Icon Sportswire)

Major League Baseball plans to follow its shortest regular season in 142 years with its longest postseason ever.

MLB and the MLB Players Association announced Thursday that the 2020 postseason field will expand from ten to 16 teams. Instead of a single Wild Card game in each league, the postseason would begin with eight best-of-three Wild Card series.

ESPN has acquired rights to seven of the eight series, with the lone exception on TBS. After airing only six MLB Postseason games in the past 14 years, ESPN could air as many as 21 this season — more than TBS (20) and just behind Fox Sports (22).

The Wild Card round would begin Tuesday, September 29 and run as late as Friday, October 2. By that point, the NBA and NHL would be in their championship series, should their returns go as planned.

Long before world events delayed and eventually shortened the season, Major League Baseball had been mulling an expansion of its postseason. In February, reports had MLB considering a 14-team format that would include six best-of-three Wild Card series starting in 2022.

MLB owners’ return-to-play plans included an expanded postseason field for this season, but that was seemingly shelved after talks with the union collapsed. News of the abrupt about face surfaced just a day before the season started Thursday — the deadline for any expansion.

As for the postseason format itself, the top two teams in each division would make the postseason, plus the best two remaining teams, according to multiple reports. The higher seed would host every game of the best-of-three series.

ESPN’s Buster Olney reported earlier Thursday that the top seeds would get to choose their opening round opponent in a nationally televised selection show — a change MLB has been considering since the expansion discussion started earlier this year — but that does not appear to be the case. Per MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, the matchups will be based purely on seeding.

[News from MLB.com 7.23, ESPN PR 7.23, USA Today 7.23, ESPN.com 7.23, Buster Olney/Twitter 7.23, Jon Heyman/Twitter 7.22]

Tags: MLB on ESPN MLB on TBS

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Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 4

Nate Johnson says:

6 years ago

Im a bit late, but I have to say I agree with the MLB on expanding the postseason for this season only. For one, I been on here mentioning how the lack of star power or big market/prestige team takes some flavor away from the postseason especially from casual/on the fence fans. Now we have an opportunity to see Mike Trout and Bryce Harper in one postseason for the first time since 2014. 2014 feels like an eternity ago and MLB needs them to participate in the postseason so they can have fill a void of a star power name in a postseason. Also, if there’s a way where the Mets and Cubs both make the NL postseason, along with the Phillies, then that side of the bracket could be satisfied with the teams participating since the Dodgers and Braves looks like they’ll be in the party.

As far as the conflict of where should the 7th series be telecast on ESPN, I simply believe that MLBN should simulcast the game (and possibly produce it) and have it also on ESPNews. On the 30th of September, telecast a Game 1 of the lesser of 3 or 4 match-up (depending on when TBS series kicks in) that begins on the 30th of September so all elimination games will be on ESPN or the deuce. Then on October 1st, if there are 4 Game 3s with another 4 Game 2s that need to be telecast then choose the lesser matchup of the Game 2s. That keeps everything else on TBS, ESPN, and ESPN2.

I love the idea. It will bring the best out of these teams ALL SEASON LONG. It will help larger market teams or prestige teams make the postseason along with a Mike Trout or Bryce Harper. If everything stand pat with that, and with the NBA/NHL/NFL, I understand ESPN will be obligated to bring more hype and attention to the NBA Finals and the current NFL situation, but at least they’ll have time to speak on MLB and what they can provide & that right there would be enough for the MLB to create postseason storylines in October. With all said, this should exist for one this season only. Resume back to 162 Regular Season games, with 10 postseason teams in 2021. And then once the CBA expires in a few years, if the MLB and its owner wants to shorten the season and expand postseason then it should be considered, but that’s until then.
esl says:

6 years ago

Agree this is a terrible idea.
And, how is ESPN going to televise this? Not understanding how they can cram in 7 of 8 series in 4 days. I imagine besides ESPN 2 they will need to ship games out to ESPN News. Any idea how they will schedule this?
- Paulsen says:
  
  6 years ago
  
  I imagine that at worst — eight games in one day — you could have three on ESPN, three on ESPN2, one on TBS and then the remaining game on ESPNEWS. But I imagine MLB will find a way to avoid having all eight series playing on the same day.
Samuel says:

6 years ago

Why would ESPN get to televise 7 out of 8 series? It would’ve been logical for ESPN to show the 4 NL series and TBS to show the 4 AL series since that’s the rights they had this season for each wild card game. But regardless of that, I think this is a terrible idea. The whole point of the wild card game was to bring more meaning back to division races. Now a team like the Yankees or Dodgers could win 40+ games and still be knocked out in a best-of-three to a team with a losing record. The division won’t mean as much because if a team finishes with the best second place record (4th seed), they are treated the same way as a division winner with home field for all three games. I really hope this is a one and done situation because a 16 team playoff format doesn’t belong in baseball. It also ruins the excitement for this season because in a short season, it would’ve been nice to see the implications of a division race and now that’s gone with the whole second place guarantee. Manfred screws it again.

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