The Philadelphia Phillies won baseball’s last playoff spot on Monday, and Bryce Harper and company partied into the night. ”
The Big Fella has a message for all of you: pic.twitter.com/5dbQ7VjQxR
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) October 4, 2022
slugger Rhys Hoskins shouted as the celebration began.
It’s Philadelphia’s first playoff appearance since 2011, and no one seemed to care that he went through one of the NL’s three wild cards.
This is the first year of the new major league playoff format, part of the negotiations that resulted in the convention collective de mars which ended a 99-day lockout. Each league has three wild cards, taking the playoff field from 10 to 12 teams .
crême Philadelphia secured his place after Seattle was granted an American League wild card on Friday night for their first playoff berth in 21 years . The other wildcard teams are Toronto and Tampa Bay in the American League, and San Diego and runner-up NL East in the NL.
“For us, it was ending the drought, so it gave us an extra opportunity,” Mariners infielder Ty France said. “But I think it’s a cool, cool structure that they have and the setup that they have.”
October’s new look erased some of the usual tension of the final days of the regular season. But there is still valuable positioning at stake for playoff teams.
The top two division winners in each league get first-round byes, and the other four qualifiers play best-of-three series in the wild-card round for three consecutive days. The winner of the Third Division is the highest seed in that group, with the other clubs ranked by their records. The top seeds in each game host the entire series.
Gone are the days of winning or winning joker games in every league.
“It’s like a wildcard team only playing one game and having a full season cut to one game, it never went well,” said Chris Antonetti, president of baseball operations for the Cleveland Guardians. “So having a few extra games in the wild card round makes sense.”
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The playoffs have been expanded to 16 teams for the pandemic-delayed 2020 season as part of an agreement between Major League Baseball and the players’ union. But the field fell back to 10 when the majors played a full season last year.
Seeking more television revenue, Major League Baseball offered 14 playoff teams during recent labor negotiations. But he settled into the 12 after resistance from the players.
“It’s not worth it, understanding that the reasoning is TV money, and it doesn’t make sense to the guys who are playing,” said New York Yankees reliever Zack Britton, who sits on the union’s executive sub-committee. . “We know exactly what teams would do if you keep adding more and more teams to the playoffs. There is no incentive to win.”
It’s unclear if the 12-team format had any effect on the playoffs. The Guardians, champions of the mediocre AL Central, are the only playoff team not to have made multiple trades by the trade deadline.
“I think he kept more teams,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “And you also talk about rebuilds or teams becoming aggressive with the addition of young players. I have the impression that it remained very competitive. If it changed, it was positive.
Seeking its first playoff appearance since 2016, Baltimore brought in Gunnar Henderson on Aug. 31. The New York Mets promoted catcher Francisco Álvarez from the minors on Sept. 30, giving their top prospect a chance in a pennant race.
The Orioles would have made a 14-team playoff field, with the Brewers in the National League. Based on the results from the final days of the season, a 14-team field could have included all major league teams that finished over .500.
“I think that would have been too many teams,” Mariners pitcher Robbie Ray said. “You don’t want teams limping with a record close to .500. I think you should still have close to 90 wins to get in.”
