MLB's Fixed Playoff Bracket Draws Fresh Criticism as the 2026 Postseason Begins
The 2026 MLB playoffs opened Tuesday with four best-of-three Wild Card Series, the first round of the 12-team postseason format the league adopted in 2022. Under that format, the three division winners in each league claim the top three seeds regardless of overall record, and only the top two of those three get a first-round bye. The third-place division winner is instead forced into the Wild Card round against one of three Wild Card qualifiers.
That structure has produced a familiar complaint heading into this October. For the second straight year, and the third time in four years, a team with its league's second-best overall record has been bumped into the best-of-three Wild Card Series rather than earning a bye, according to CBS Sports' review of the seeding rules, because the bye goes to the two division winners with the best records, not necessarily the two teams with the best records leaguewide. MLB also does not reseed the bracket after the first round, so one side can end up with a far tougher road than the other. Former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has publicly questioned whether a 162-game season means as much when teams near .500 can still reach October.
The format has already produced its share of upsets since 2022. The 111-win Dodgers were eliminated in the first round that year, three different 100-win teams lost immediately in 2023, and Milwaukee, which had the best record in baseball in 2025, was swept in the National League Championship Series (NLCS) despite it.
What supporters say:
A 12-team field keeps more fan bases invested deep into September, and short, high-stakes series create more compelling television for casual viewers.
Rewarding division winners with guaranteed top-three seeds, even without the single best record, still ties a real accomplishment, winning your division, to a playoff benefit.
More Wild Card slots mean more teams have a realistic path to October, which supporters say makes the sport's expanded postseason more commercially valuable.
What critics say:
A team can finish with the second-best record in its entire league and still get denied a bye simply because it didn't win its division, which critics call a mismatch between regular-season performance and playoff reward.
Best-of-three series compress six months of baseball into a format where one or two bad innings can end a season, undercutting the value of a long regular season.
Because MLB doesn't reseed after the Wild Card round, the bracket can leave one side of the field loaded with contenders while the other is comparatively easy, critics say.
What's your take?
Should MLB reseed its playoff bracket by overall record instead of automatically giving division winners the top seeds? Yes 
No 
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