Major League Baseball’s new postseason format for the 2022 season expands the playing field, creates more games and introduces a different path to the pennant. The wild-card game has been eliminated and gone is the one-game playoff to break ties in the standings. Instead, the league has introduced a three-game wild-card series. Additionally, MLB has widened the playoff field from 10 to 12 teams.
With October on its way, here’s everything you need to know about MLB’s new playoff format.
What is the new format?
MLB will implement a 12-team playoff bracket, featuring six teams from each league, rather than last year’s format with 10 teams (five from each league). Each side of the bracket will have three division winners and three wild-card teams.
Instead of having a single-elimination wild-card game, the new format features a best-of-three wild-card series.
What if there’s a tie at the end of the regular season?
There’s a tiebreaker. Game 163 has been eliminated. Now, all ties will be resolved mathematically with the first tiebreaker going to the team with the better record during their head-to-head matchup in the regular season.
For example: If Team X and Team Y tie for the top spot, and Team X went 11-8 against Team Y in the regular season, Team X — having won more games — would become the top seed.
If the head-to-head record is also a tie, the team’s intradivisional records will be used as the next tiebreaker. The team with the better intradivision record will be given the higher seed.
If the intradivisional records are tied, the tie would be settled on the teams’ records against teams within their league but outside their division (or interdivisional play).
.