Major League Baseball expands its playoff schedule for 2020

Baseball (Jay Schyler Raadt, Wikimedia Commons)

Major League Baseball will have a different playoff format for the 2020 season because of coronavirus according to the Associated Press. As a result, the number of teams that will qualify for the playoffs has expanded from 10 to 16 teams.

Under the new format, which will take place only this year because of coronavirus, the top two teams from each division will qualify. Then the next top two teams from each league will also qualify.

Teams will then be seeded first through eighth in each league, and you will see eight best-of-three opening round series. First will play eighth, second will play seventh, third will play sixth, and fourth will play fifth. The highest-seeded teams will host all three games in the series. The winners of the eight series will then move on to the second round, which will be best of five. The four winning teams of the second round, will then advance to the American League and National League Championship Series, which will be best of seven. The winners of the championship series, will then play in the World Series.

There had been some discussion of the possibility that the top team in each league would get a first round bye, like we will see with the National Football League, in the change of their playoff format. However, that is not the case with Major League Baseball.

The opening round is set to start September 29, and be concluded no later than October 2. Seven of the eight series will be broadcasted on ESPN, with the eighth series being shown on TBS.