Chicago Cubs: Expanded postseason changes season narrative

As the Chicago Cubs are set to open their season against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night, their post-season chances have already improved.

The Chicago Cubs did not even have to play a game before they received encouraging news regarding their playoff chances for the 2020 Major League Baseball Season.

On Thursday, the Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League Baseball Owners agreed to expand the post-season for the 2020 season.

The expansion will increase the post-season eligible teams from 10 to 16. In other words, just over half the teams in Major League Baseball will be playing in the post-season come October.

This is Major League Baseball that we are talking about. It is not as simple as expanding the eligible teams from 10 to 16 by adding more Wild Card teams. That would be too easy.

Instead, the format is as follows: The first place and second-place team from each division will make the post-season, and for the final two spots, that will go to the two teams that had the best record but did not finish first or second in their respective division.

But that is not where the funky ends. The first-place team of each division will then have the opportunity to select who they would like to play in the first round. The first-round being a best of three series that will be played at the home field of the team with the highest seed.

Is your head spinning? Don’t worry, here is an example of the new format based off last year’s standings for the National League:

National League West Post-Season Teams

1. Los Angeles Dodgers 97-65
2. Arizona Diamondbacks 93-69

National League Central Post-Season Teams 

1. St. Louis Cardinals 91-71
2. Milwaukee Brewers 89-73

National League East Post-Season Teams 

1. Atlanta Braves 97-65
2. Washington Nationals 93-69

National League Wild Card Teams

1. New York Mets 86-76
2. Chicago Cubs 84-78

Needless to say, if things were not weird before, they definitely are now.

Before we digest what this means for the Cubs, let’s get the caveat out of the way. This is a terrible format. A better format would have been to place a paper with each team’s name on it along the Wrigley Field bleachers and have the ball of a Craig Kimbrel allowed home-run make the selections.

Having said all that, there is no doubt that the Cubs chances of making the post-season have undoubtedly increased. At the very least, all the Cubs have to do in 2020 is be one of the two best third-place teams in the National League. When comparing the Cubs’ 2020 roster against other potential third-place teams in the National League, suddenly, the narrative of the season has changed. No longer are the Cubs a fringe contender and, instead, they are a team that is expected to make the post-season.

But that change in narrative is where it becomes scary for the future of the Cubs and why expanded post-season should not be a mainstay in Major League Baseball. The reason being is that it will lead to teams spending less during the off-season as the new format makes it likely that a .500 team or even sub .500 team will make the post-season. Which for a team like the Cubs, with an Owner in Tom Ricketts showing an increased disinterest in spending on the Major League team, leaves them for the potential to be trapped in baseball hell. Mediocre enough to make the post-season but not nearly good enough to actually compete for the World Series title.

Expanded Post-Season is here for Major League Baseball in 2020 and the Chicago Cubs have a strong chance of being included. But like with most things in 2020, let’s hope it is a thing that we can simply forget once the calendar turns to 2021.