Major League Baseball’s latest proposal could reshape the regular season and postseason, and it includes a wrinkle that would have mattered a whole lot to the Cardinals in 2022.
On Thursday, MLB put forward a plan to go back to a 154-game season beginning in 2029, a length the sport hasn’t used since 1961. The proposal also calls for a standard weekly off day to aid player health, a seven-game Division Series, and a system that would let teams choose their opponent in the Wild Card Series and Division Series.
That last part stands out immediately for St. Louis.
If that rule had been in place in 2022, the Cardinals almost certainly would not have picked the Phillies. They could have gone with the Mets instead, and that path might have opened the door to a deeper October run.
Instead, St. Louis drew a Phillies club that was a buzzsaw.
Philadelphia needed only two wins to take the series, and the Cardinals’ loss was sealed after they dropped Game 1 in the new Wild Card format. Ryan Helsely’s finger went numb on him in the ninth inning of that game, a moment that loomed large in the collapse.
There’s no guarantee the new setup would always help the Cardinals. In some years, it could push them toward an opponent they’d rather avoid. But it would also create a strange new edge to October: if a team chooses you, that’s instant motivation.
MLBPA response to the proposal was guarded. The union said it was willing to consider the changes, but it also made clear that frustration remains because the proposal is being tied to the expectation of a salary cap.
The regular-season changes bring their own ripple effects. A 154-game schedule makes individual milestones and all-time records even tougher to reach, simply because players would have fewer games to build those totals.
The weekly off day is the cleaner part of the plan. It mirrors the current minor league schedule, where teams get Mondays off, and it could go a long way toward helping players stay fresh and healthy. Right now, clubs can be stuck grinding through stretches of 10, 15, or even nearly 20 straight games without a day off.
It could also nudge more teams toward six-man rotations, with starters working once a week instead of every fifth game. MLB has also discussed expanding rosters enough to make that more realistic.
Given how carefully the Cardinals have managed starting-pitching health, that part of the proposal might be appealing in St. Louis.
As for the seven-game Division Series, that change would reduce the chance of a quick postseason exit and give the better team more room to survive a bad start. It also adds more home games, which means more television money and more revenue for the clubs hosting them.
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