Braves News: Manfred on the playoff format, level World Series, more

Rob Manfred gave some lip service to re-examining the playoff format this offseason. There has been a lot of discussion about the playoff format, as the postseason has essentially turned the MLB world upside down, with the worst teams making deep runs and the best teams being knocked out early.

It is possible that they consider some tweaks to further advantage the top seeded teams, but I am extremely skeptical that the owners will agree to any format change that will reduce that will reduce the number of games likely to be played. The entire reason we find ourselves here is because the owners wanted more teams in the playoffs and more playoff games to drive more revenue. Even giving a further advantage to the best teams might be frowned upon by many owners who would like to minimize the competitive advantage of a well-resourced team by making the postseason as random as possible. We’ll see if anything happens, but I will be surprised if there is any meaningful change. Manfred even went so far as to defend the current playoff format, as the Diamondbacks (who had a negative run differential over the 162 game season) levelled the World Series at 1-1 Saturday night.