Major League Baseball is poised to add an extra wild card team for both leagues beginning in 2012.
The playoff expansion was reportedly met with very little friction among GM’s during this week’s General Managers Meetings, and the debate is expected to continue December 7th when executives from all franchises convene in Orlando for the Winter Meetings. Commissioner Bud Selig was quoted as saying, “We will move ahead (with the process) and move ahead pretty quickly.”
If/when this expansion is finalized, which could be as early as the Owners Meetings in Paradise, AZ on January 12-13, it will be music to the ears of every MLB franchise, even the New York Yankees (who would have benefited from the proposed expansion in 2008). Almost every year, there is a team or (in some cases) multiple teams in a very competitive division that win more games than a team in a much less competitive division who won that division— yet still get snubbed from the lone wild card spot because there was only one other team who performed better. Let’s take a look at instances of this flaw in the past 8 years: