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MLB proposes 154-game season, best-of-7 Division Series and playoff pick option

sportsOct 8, 20263992

Major League Baseball proposed shortening the regular season to 154 games from 162 starting in 2029 and expanding the Division Series from best-of-five to best-of-seven as part of bargaining with players. Owners also proposed allowing higher-seeded teams to pick their opponents in the first two postseason rounds beginning next year and making Monday a day off for most teams starting in 2029 except for one or two nationally broadcast games. MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said returning to 154 games would allow a weekly off day for player health and create a new national broadcast window while "making October even better" with fewer weekday afternoon games and longer Division Series. MLB said player salaries would not be reduced to reflect fewer games, though bonus provision thresholds tied to games played would be adjusted to the shorter schedule. League history noted by MLB: both leagues used 154-game schedules starting in 1904, the American League moved to 162 games in 1961 and the National League in 1962, the League Championship Series expanded to best-of-seven after 1984, Division Series have been best-of-five since 1995, and the current wild-card formats evolved with expansions in 2012 and 2022. MLB warned cutting regular-season games would reduce opportunities for players to set season and career records. These proposals are tied to the broader collective bargaining negotiations and would require player approval to take effect.

Nute
@nutedawn.bsky.social

I cannot sufficiently express how much I support a system where the higher playoff seed gets to pick their opponent in the next round. This feels like something with minimal impact on actual baseball but *enormous* potential for Drama

12Yesterday
MLB Daily News
@insidemlbnews.bsky.social

MLB proposals in a bargaining session with MLBPA today: - Starting in 2029, cut regular season from 162 games to 154 - Starting in 2027, higher seeds in Wild Card and Division Series choose their opponents - Division Series expands to 7 games

11Yesterday
Quoting this
Brandon (B-Dub)7

1) Yes 2) Hell no 3) No

Seattle Sports
@seattlesports710.bsky.social

MLB proposed trimming the regular season to 154 games, expanding the Division Series to best-of-seven and allowing higher-seeded teams to pick their opponents in the first two rounds of the playoffs. sports.mynorthwest.com/mlb/seattle-...

11Yesterday
CJ Coreschi
@cjcoreschi.bsky.social

@espn.com incorrectly states here that MLB would be the first professional sports league with a 'pick your opponent' playoff format. This is wrong. Professional domestic soccer league MLS Next Pro has utilized that structure for the past four years. www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...

8Yesterday
nick
@vossbrink.bsky.social

There may be situations where I'd be okay with a 154-game season but this thing where MLB keeps chipping away at the regular season to expand the playoffs is not one of them. www.mlb.com/news/mlb-mlb...

10Yesterday
Lev Akabas
@levakabas.bsky.social

The MLB's postseason is so short relative to the regular season compared to other sports leagues Cutting the regular season to 154 games and making the Division Series 7 games would only make a slight difference

4Yesterday
Quoting this
Will Harris7

There's a self-reinforcing cycle where the more playoff games and less regular season games there are the less regular season matters, and then the league says if it doesn't matter let's have even less of it, and gradually the regular season becomes meaningless

Justin Horneker7

Don’t show this to MLS execs

Bryan Toporek
@btoporek.bsky.social

I'm sure the rest of what MLB is proposing in its next CBA is hot garbage, but... I'm very here for the "higher seed picks its opponent in the playoffs" idea. www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...

6Yesterday
Andy Tulin (Subscribe to The Post Presence version)
@andytulin.net

For the record, extending the MLB division series is a good proposal, and so is shortening the regular season. But the only thing that actually matters in these negotiations is the salary cap and the owners are just waving shiny objects to try and get people to focus on anything else.

4Yesterday
Adam Doctolero
@adamdoctolero.bsky.social

Wild card games should be one-game, sudden-death, and the Division Series should be 7 games. #MLBPlayoffs

42d ago
Ryan Rosenblatt
@ryanrosenblatt.bsky.social

The Division Series needs to go to best of 7. These games are too good. Bonus: you can restore the greatness of the Wild Card by going back to the superior one game winner-take-all to make room in the calendar for an expanded DS.

33d ago
AJ
@ncsox.bsky.social

Ignoring the legion of fans who actually look forward to weekday afternoon games. Sounds about right for Manfred. "A shorter regular season unlocks making October even better for our fans -- with fewer weekday afternoon games, a longer Division Series, ..." www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...

3Yesterday
AJ4

Why does everything they propose or do feel like it's designed to shrink their fan base?

le Pooch Noir1

Funny thing is, the tradition was for WS games to be day games for a surprisingly long time: the first WS night game was played in ‘71

le Pooch Noir1

Gotta squeeze out every last primetime dime

Tommy Poe
@walkoffwalk.net

Specifically on the division series...I always a fan of it being 7 games...but I kinda like the crapshoot of a 5-game set. Where anything can happen. But..also okay with a 7-game series because, as I stated before, more baseball is generally good.

2Yesterday
Arctic Giantess
@edoornek.bsky.social

Ah man, this proposal actually kinda rocks; too bad it's contingent on player approval of a salary cap. apnews.com/article/mlb-...

2Yesterday
Mack Butterfield
@mack2114.bsky.social

Major League Baseball has proposed to shorten its regular season to 154 games starting in 2029 and to expand the division series to a best-of-seven format. MLB also wants to allow higher-seeded teams to choose their opponent both in early rounds of the playoffs. www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...

2Yesterday
Parentball
@parentball.bsky.social

I first read this as "shortening regular season by 154 games" and for that moment I thought, ok, maybe I can get back into baseball

2Yesterday
3 sources
espn.comMLB proposes shorter regular season, best-of-7 Division Serieschannel3000.comMLB proposes shortening regular season to 154 games in 2029, expanding Division Series to best-of-7sports.mynorthwest.comMLB proposes shorter regular season, best-of-7 Division Series - Seattle Sports

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