The best part of the 2022 Major League Baseball season officially ends today, October 5, 2022. A heart felt thank you and shoutout to the Dodgers for a wonderfully exciting ride through the 2022 regular season. It has been a blast!

Playoffs?

While the MLB postseason tournament will be fun to watch, the number of regular season wins has already determined the best teams of 2022: LA Dodgers (110), Houston Astros (105, Atlanta Braves (101), New York Yankees (99), and New York Mets (100). The Cleveland Guardians (91) sneak into the playoffs by winning the weak American League Central Division, but they are out-of-their-league in comparison.

The other teams in the postseason tournament are regular season also-rans, by large margins —undeservedly contending for the October Classic because of MLB business economics. Those teams should be watching the playoffs on TV, or perhaps playing in the equivalent of college basketball’s annual National Invitational Tournament, not a trip to the World Series. Playing for participation trophies rather than World Series rings.

To be blunt, any playoff system that could result in the San Diego Padres playing the Seattle Mariners for the World Championship is ludicrous – and yet that is a possible outcome under the current structure. Two Wild Card teams playing in the World Series has happened twice in the past: 2002 the Anaheim Angels defeated the San Francisco Giants, and 2014 the Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals.

Other Wild Card teams crowned as World Champions: Florida Marlins (1997 and 2003), Boston Red Sox (2004), St. Louis Cardinals (2011), and Washington Nationals (2019). The Florida/Miami Marlins have the unenviable record of winning the World Series (twice) without ever winning a Division Championship.

Alas, “it is what it is.” MLB and the Players Association are not going to reduce the number of playoff teams, there is just too much money involved. Indeed, it is more likely that the number of teams will be increased in future years, further degrading the World Series, which was once the crown jewel of professional sports postseason championships.

Nonetheless, cheer on our beloved Dodgers as they pursue the eighth World Championship in the team’s history.

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