Major League Baseball’s latest labor proposal could reshape the postseason bracket in a way that keeps putting the Dodgers in the spotlight.
According to the current Collective Bargaining negotiations, MLB has floated a setup that would shorten the regular season to 154 games, expand the Division Series from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven, and most notably change how playoff opponents are assigned. Under the new idea, the highest-seeded team would get to pick its opponent in both the Wild Card and Division Series rounds.
That means the usual bracket matchups would disappear. Instead of the No. 3 seed automatically facing the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed drawing the No. 5 seed, the No. 3 team would choose between the No. 5 and No. 6 clubs. Then, in the Division Series, the No. 1 seed would select from the teams that survived the Wild Card round.
The proposal could create plenty of strategy, and for the Dodgers it could also create a familiar advantage. This season, Los Angeles was the No. 2 seed, which would have left it at the mercy of Milwaukee’s choice in the NLDS.
Because of the Dodgers’ rivalry with the San Diego Padres, the Brewers could have altered the entire bracket by opting to face Atlanta instead. That said, LA was 1-5 against Atlanta this past season, so Milwaukee might have decided to take the easier-looking path and go against the Padres.
The bigger point is that the Dodgers have usually been positioned to benefit from this kind of system. Since the format changed in 2022, they’ve earned the No. 1 seed twice and the No. 3 seed once, which would often put them in the driver’s seat when it came time to pick an opponent.
The other notable change in the proposal is the move to a seven-game Division Series. That would mean more playoff inventory, more home games for lower seeds, and fewer situations where an 0-2 hole feels like the end of the road before the series really gets going.
The most intriguing part, though, is what this could mean for matchups across the league. If the higher seed gets to choose, the playoffs could serve up more division rivalries like Dodgers-Padres, Brewers-Cubs, and Braves-Phillies whenever the top team decides that’s the route it wants to take.
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