At long last, the expanded postseason is upon us.
Major League Baseball tried out the concept in 2020, in part to compensate for lost revenue when the COVID-19 pandemic shortened the regular season to 60 games. The sport’s new collective-bargaining agreement adjusted and codified the plan, putting it in place at least for the next five years.
The revised format is easy enough to grasp. Twelve teams instead of 10. Four best-of-three opening series instead of two one-game knockouts. Thirteen wins to a World Series title for the eight teams in the first round, 11 for the four teams that received byes.
How will it play out? Glad you asked. More teams and more games mean more storylines, in a sport that never lacks for drama in October — and this year, November. So, here’s an expanded guide to the expanded postseason: the players, the teams and, yes, the quirks in the new format, too.
Seeding frenzy
This is going to be a thing, so let’s explain why the Dodgers, the top National League seed, could face a 101-win Mets team as its first opponent, and why the Astros, the top AL seed, also might face the best of their league’s three wild cards, the Blue Jays.
Rather than re-seed the field after the wild-card round, the league is going with set brackets. In early September, The Athletic’s Jayson Stark mentioned
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