MLB Owners Pitch 154-Game Season, Expanded Playoffs in Labor Talks

MLB team owners continue to push for radical change in their ongoing labor talks with the MLB Players Association, this time proposing a reduced regular season and an expanded playoffs. 

After previously seeking a hard salary cap, a remade reserve system, and a reconstructed method for amateur entry into MLB, management is now proposing arguably the largest change to the annual schedule in more than 65 years. Among the latest proposals:

• A return to a 154-game regular season, not used in the American League since 1960, and not in the National League since 1961. This time, however, it would be with interleague play, which didn’t start until 1997. 
• An expanded seven-game Division Series. The other rounds of the postseason would remain at their current lengths. 
• The ability for higher playoff seeds to pick their opponents in the wild card and Division Series rounds. 

The seed selection component of the postseason would take effect with the 2027 season, while owners are seeking to implement the 154-game season and expanded Division Series beginning in 2029. 

“Returning to a 154-game schedule would allow us to introduce a weekly off day, which is good for player health, while also creating a new national broadcast window to showcase our most exciting teams and players,” said MLB spokesman Glen Caplin. “A shorter regular season unlocks making October even better for our fans—with fewer weekday afternoon games, a longer Division Series, and more opportunities to see the game’s best pitchers on the biggest stage. And allowing the top seeds to select their opponents in the first two rounds would create compelling storylines, intensify existing rivalries and create new ones.”

Collectively, the shifts push more of the baseball calendar to the postseason, which generates the most viewership and are the most coveted games among broadcasting networks. This point is crucial as after the 2028 season, all of MLB’s current national media-rights pacts will have expired, and league commissioner Rob Manfred is looking to restructure the sport’s media profile by blending the national and regional agreements. 

The weekly off day would normally be Mondays, which outside of holidays is typically a weaker day for attendance and viewership. 

Major Caveats

Like other management proposals in the ongoing labor talks, the latest schedule ideas were presented in the context of the owners’ push for a salary cap. That makes the latest offer essentially a nonstarter with the union.

“The league made multiple proposals today. We are reviewing these materials, including the proposed changes to the playoff format,” the MLBPA said Thursday. “Players will weigh in on these proposals and we will respond at the bargaining table. Unfortunately, the league once again made clear that all of its proposals are contingent on players’ agreement to a salary cap, a system that guts player rights and compensation, as well as its other anti-player proposals.” 

Because of the ongoing division between the two sides, a management lockout is expected when the current collective bargaining agreement expires in December.