Selig says he expects expanded baseball playoffs to start this year
Published 11:44 pm Friday, January 27, 2012
NEW YORK — Commissioner Bud Selig said he expects baseball to expand its playoffs this season.
Players and owners have agreed to add an additional wild-card team in each league, but are still deciding whether the change would take effect this year or next. Selig said there are scheduling issues to be worked out — once they are, the new 10-team format would begin with a one-game playoff.
“I really believe we’ll have the wild card for 2012 …” Selig said Friday in Chicago at a White Sox fan festival. “Clubs really want it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an issue that the clubs want more than to have the extra wild card this year.”
Negotiators plan to talk again next week and decide by March 1 whether the extra round will begin this year.
“I think most clubs at this point, no matter who you are, are focused on trying to win a division,” Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said. “If that doesn’t work, then you make your adjustments.”
Under the new format, whenever it begins, the non-division winners in each league with the two best records will be the wild cards, meaning a third-place team could for the first time win the World Series.
Being able to finish third and still go to the postseason could create more of an opportunity in the AL East for teams other than the rich New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, or in the AL West, where the two-time champion Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels have spent big bucks to improve.
In the AL Central, Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore watched Dombrowski add Prince Fielder to his already formidable batting order this week.
“We’re focused on putting the best team on the field we can to compete to win the Central. That’s the first goal,” Moore said. “If that appears to be unattainable, we’ll evaluate what we need to do to improve the team to continue to strive for that goal. If it becomes apparent that’s not going to happen, you begin to focus on the wild card. You want to get in the playoffs any way you can and take your chances there.”
MLB and the players’ association have reached a consensus that ties for division titles will be broken on the field under the new playoff format, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because a deal hadn’t been finalized.
Since 1995, head-to-head records have been used to determine first place if both teams are going to the postseason. But with the start of a one-game, winner-take-all wild-card round, the sides agreed the difference between first place and a wild-card berth is too important to decide with a formula and a tiebreaker game would be played.
