MLB’s expanded playoffs captivate more fans as the regular season enters the home stretch

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — JJ Picollo sat in the Kansas City dugout on an unseasonably warm fall afternoon, waiting for the Royals to play the Detroit Tigers in a matchup of AL Central rivals that few would have thought would be battling for the postseason this year.

Both had a losing record last season, and the Royals had fallen so far since their championship glory days of 2014 and 2015 that they were coming off a 106-loss season that was arguably the worst season in franchise history.

However, neither the Royals nor the Twins were competing for the division title. Cleveland was busy finishing that race. But they were firmly in the running for one of the three wild cards awarded to teams in each league, giving Major League Baseball exactly what it wanted when it expanded its playoffs a few years ago.

“I think it’s good that there are more teams involved. I think it makes it more interesting for our fans,” said Picollo, the Royals’ general manager. “There are more fans coming to the games — and watching the games — than normal. There are several teams on the sidelines that could do something. So the fan base is engaged and I think that’s great for the game.”

There are countless reasons why baseball has become relevant again this season, from the pitch clock and rule changes that have shortened games to historic performances by players like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge.

Still, the fact remains that many fans tune out once their team is out of the race—for the Royals, that’s been the case around mid-May recently. The extended playoffs mean more fans are tuning in later in the season; with just over a week to go, seven were still in the running for the three AL wildcards and five were battling for the three NL wildcards.

“I think it accomplished exactly what they wanted to do, which was keep a lot of people interested and a lot of teams interested,” said Atlanta manager Brian Snitker, whose team watched the Phillies pull away from the NL East but still get a wild card.

In fact, the Braves were battling with another division rival – the Mets – for one of the open spots.

“You know who hates this? My mother,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora, whose brother Joey happens to be third-base coach for Detroit. That means one of Iris Amaro’s favorite teams could make the playoffs at the expense of the other.

“Let’s see who Iris is actually rooting for,” said Cora with a grin. “I think it’s good for the sport anyway.”

Major League Baseball has changed its playoff format several times. From 1969 to 1993, division winners went directly to the league’s championship series, and the winners met in the World Series. The wild card was introduced in 1994 along with a divisional reshuffle to give more teams a chance, and a second wild card in 2012 expanded the playoffs to 10 teams.

At this point, the wildcards from each league played a one-game showdown, with the winner taking everything to earn a spot in the divisional round.

“I’ve been involved in two wild cards where it was ‘win or go home,'” said Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, whose team entered this week in the first AL wild card spot. “It was like the Super Bowl, that’s what it felt like, that one night.”

Two years ago, the playoffs were expanded to 12 with the addition of a third wild card in each division, and the playoffs were replaced with best-of-three series involving those three teams and the lowest-seeded division winner. And while that put two more teams in the mix, a team that won its division after 162 grueling games had to play an additional series just to reach the divisional round.

This particular element of the expanded playoffs is not for everyone.

“When you win your division, you shouldn’t have to play in a wild card series,” Mets outfielder JD Martinez said. “I like the idea of ​​a one-game wild card, not three-game wild card. I played in two of them and they were electric. They were incredible. Those two wild card games were some of my favorite experiences. There’s just so much. It’s like a Game 7.”

Even fans of the same team that is still in the race thanks to the expanded playoff format have mixed feelings about it.

“I’m not a fan,” said Charlies Devries, a Braves fan from Atlanta. “There’s no real reason for it. I like the old way of doing it. I like the one-game wild-card tiebreaker. It doesn’t make it any more exciting in the last part of the season.”

“I kind of like the new format,” said Jack Mixon, a Braves fan from Hall County, Georgia. “It’s nice to see (the Braves) trying to win another World Series. The end of the season is really exciting now because any mistake could cost us the playoffs.”

With just over a week to go before the end of the season, this was the case for a dozen teams still fighting for wild cards.

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AP Sports freelancers Sean Holohan, Ken Powtak and Ian Harrison contributed to this report.