Major League Baseball announced Thursday that it wants to cut the regular season from 162 to 154 games, expand the Division Series to seven games, and let top playoff seeds choose their opponents. Whether any of that actually ever gets implemented remains to be seen, however.
The announcement is more likely just another salvo fired by Major League Baseball owners ahead of a potential lockout, as they and the Major League Baseball Players Association continue to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, often publicly.
In 1962, the National League adopted the current 162-game schedule. Before that, the National League played a 154-game schedule. The American League actually moved to a 162-game schedule a year before, in 1961.
The league says it wants to implement a “regular weekly off day enhancing player health” under the new/old 154-game schedule beginning in 2029.
Another aspect of the proposed plan allows higher-seeded teams in the Division Series and Wild Card rounds to choose their opponents. This change would take effect for the 2027 season.
These schedule changes were formulated in tandem with plans to adopt a salary cap and compensation floor, which the owners intend to implement after the current collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1. That is when the owners could decide to lock out the players.
The Major League Baseball Players Association responds to the proposed changes
In June, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) quickly rejected the owners’ proposal for a salary cap, claiming it would reduce players’ share of revenue, cut their pay by $500 million, and make parts of their contracts non-guaranteed.
As for these proposed changes to the regular season schedule and playoff format, the MLBPA said in a statement on Thursday that the players will weigh in on these proposals and we will respond at the bargaining table.
“Unfortunately, the league once again made it clear that all of its proposals are contingent on players’ agreement to a salary cap, a system that guts player rights and compensation,” the MLBPA added.
Other changes that have been floated by MLB owners over the past few months include suspending players for three weeks if they are selected for the 2028 Olympic team but decline to play without league approval, and making all American-born high school players ineligible for the draft.