SAN DIEGO — Major League Baseball proposed to the players union Thursday that the regular season be reduced from 162 games to 154 games for the first time since 1960, with teams also playing four split-doubleheaders during the season, ending the season a week earlier than normal.
The reduced schedule, which would provide virtually each team an off day every Monday except for holidays and special events, would begin in 2029 to coincide with MLB’s new national TV package.
MLB, while wanting to lengthen the division series from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven format (which would potentially add eight games to the postseason), also is proposing once again that the highest-seeded teams in the postseason can choose their playoff opponent. It is similar
to the same proposal during their 2021 negotiations when it tried to expand the playoff field to 14 teams, but the union refused because it believed it would promote mediocrity, and they settled on a 12-team playoff pool.
"Returning to a 154-game schedule would allow us to introduce a weekly off day, which is good for player health, while also creating a new national broadcast window to showcase our most exciting teams and players," MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement. "A shorter regular season unlocks making October even better for our fans – with fewer weekday afternoon games, a longer Division Series, and more opportunities to see the game’s best pitchers on the biggest stage. And allowing the top seeds to select their opponents in the first two rounds would create compelling storylines, intensify existing rivalries and create new ones."
MLB, which vowed that players would not have their salaries reduced and that award bonuses would become pro-rated, is also trying to appease the union by saying that a shorter season would help reduce the number of injuries, particularly among pitchers, while lessening the frequent optioning of pitchers to the minor leagues. Teams averaged 24% fewer optional assignments when they had an off day during a week compared to playing seven days in the week, according to MLB’s research.
The new playoff format is nearly identical to the one MLB wanted in 2021.
The top two teams would still receive byes, and the No. 3 seed would select whether they want to play the No. 5 or No. 6 seed. In the division series, the top seed would select which wild-card winner they want to play. The selections would likely come on a national TV show.
Certainly, it would prevent what occurred this postseason when the top three teams in the American League_the Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox of the AL East_were all in the same bracket. The Red Sox were eliminated in the wild-card round and the Yankees in the division series. The bracket structure left the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Guardians on the opposite side from the Rays, Yankees and Red Sox.
The caveat, of course, is that the players union would have to agree to a salary cap, which it has long resisted.
“Players will weigh in on these proposals, and we will respond at the bargaining table,’’ the union said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the league once again made clear that all of its proposals are contingent on players’ agreement to a salary cap, a system that guts player rights and compensation, as well as its other anti-player proposals."
The current CBA expires Dec. 1, and if no agreement is reached, MLB is expected to impose a lockout that could carry into the 2027 season. MLB sent memos to each team last week reminding them of the protocols, which were employed during their last lockout in 2021 that lasted 99 days.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB proposes 154-game season, longer playoffs beginning in 2029
