Is Major League Baseball Ready To Go To 14 Teams For The Playoffs In 2022?

Published|Updated

Last season, Major League Baseball made changes to the postseason in order to make things more exciting, allowing more teams into the second MLB season.

The 2020 postseason saw 16-team playoff bracket, instituted by MLB commish Rob Manfred, play out, and Manfred apparently saw potential with more teams in the playoffs. It seemed to work out with some fun playoff matchups that eventually led to a win for the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series.

Now with next season already in view, there are rumblings that the league may move forward with a 14-team postseason field during the next collective bargaining sessions.

Fox MLB reporter Ken Rosenthal reported Monday on The Athletic Baseball Show podcast that the league is indeed looking to expand the playoffs to 14 teams, and could do it as early as next season.

"Going forward, what has been discussed is a 14-team playoff, seven in each league, in which some of those things I just mentioned, home-field advantage for the division champion, penalizing the Wild Card, best overall record gets the edge, that will all be taken care of," Rosenthal said Monday on the podcast.

For the 2021 season and playoffs, the league will have the traditional 10-team playoff, with six division winners and four wild card teams.

Rosenthal says that if approved, a whole new system could make two more playoff spots available in both the National League and American League for 2022 and beyond.











Tags
Written by
Matt has been a part of the Cleveland Sports landscape working in the media since 1994 when he graduated from broadcasting school. His coverage beats include the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Cavaliers. He's written three books, and won the "2020 AP Sports Stringer Lifetime Service Award."