MLB Postseason 2024 format: Everything you need to know
09/30/2024 07:57 PM
The New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are playing the final regular season game of the year on Monday, Sept. 30, because of late-season cancellations due to Hurricane Helene. The final 162nd game across the league will decide the postseason fate of those two teams, as well as the Arizona Diamondbacks. The rest of the 2024 MLB postseason schedule is already set, though.
Baseball action always picks up in October, but some fans are still getting used to the new rules. The structure of the playoffs was changed in 2020 due to COVID-19, but in 2022, MLB permanently changed the format for postseason baseball. In case you forgot what is different than in years past, then we have you covered. Here is the current postseason format for MLB playoffs in 2024.
MLB Postseason: Wild Card Series
Twelve teams in total make the MLB postseason, six from each league. This is up one team in each league compared to the format that was used from 2012-2019 and in 2021. Now, each league has two games in the Wild Card Series. Each division winner secures the top three seeds, which leaves the final three seeds in each league to the non-division winners with the best records.
The top two teams in each league get a first-round bye, which leaves the worst division winner (three seed) to battle it out in the Wild Card Series against the six-seed in order to advance to the next round. The fourth and fifth-seeded teams also face each other in the Wild Card Series.
This round of postseason baseball is a best-of-three series, where the higher-seeded team gets home-field advantage in every game. The newish postseason format has been a hit in recent seasons. The extra team in each league securing postseason berths has increased regular season competitiveness league-wide, and the implementation of the new format has worked well in adding excitement without extending the length of the playoffs too much.
The one critique some fans have had is that the best regular season teams, although they get a bye week, are actually hurt by having so much time off before the Division Series. We’ve seen a lot of underdog teams win in round two over the last couple of years because the team that had a bye round ended up being rusty when it was finally time to play, whereas the Wild Card Series winner already had momentum from their recent victory.
MLB Postseason: Division Series, Championship Series, and World Series
Four teams advance from the Wild Card Series to the Division Series, which means four teams are eliminated before the ALDS and NLDS. The winner of the four/five-seed matchup moves on to play the top-ranked team, while the winner of the three/six-seed game advances to play the two-seed. That means there is no re-seeding.
Division series are best-of-five matchups. The higher seed starts at home in Games 1 and 2, and after traveling to enemy territory for Games 3 and 4, they return home for the series closing game.
The Championship Series ups the ante even more, as the ALCS and NLCS are seven-game series. The teams fighting for the pennant play at the higher seeds home in Games 1, 2, 6, and 7, while the lower seeded team hosts Games 3, 4, and 5. The same format for the Championship Series is used in the World Series, where the two best teams from each league battle it out to be awarded the Commissioner’s Trophy and earn the title of champions.
The first of two games between the Mets and Braves in their double-header ahead of the postseason is being considered the game of the year. Stakes are super high in the postseason, and you can expect even more memorable performances to happen in the 2024 MLB postseason.
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