Chicago baseball fans can be forgiven if they’re not intimately familiar with the new playoff format rolled out by Major League Baseball last season.
After all, neither the Cubs nor White Sox sniffed the playoffs last year, but with the Cubs in the driver’s seat in the wild card race, fans are beginning to pay attention to how the postseason is structured.
Here is a primer on the system, which came into force last year:
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Number of Qualifying Teams – 12
Six teams qualify for the postseason in each league. Three of those teams are the division winners, as had been the case for several years, but the remaining three teams all earn wild card berths.
It is at this point that we get our first divergence from the old format.
How the Wild Card Round Works
MLB
The two division winners with the best record in each league receive a bye through the first round of the playoffs under the new format. The remaining division winner, as well as the three wild card winners, compete in best-of-three series to determine who makes it to the Division Series round.
The division winner will face the third-seeded wild card team, while the top-seeded wild card club will host the second-seeded team.
The best-of-three series will be exclusively contested in the higher-seeded team’s park, with no travel days or days off in between.
The winner of the 3-6 matchup will face the second-seeded division winner in the Divisional Series round, while the 4-5 winner will face the top-seeded club in the league.
How the Rest of the Postseason Works
The rest of the postseason plays out as it did in the past. The Division Series round is a best-of-five series, with the first two games at the higher-seeded team’s park, Games 3 and 4 in the lower-seeded team’s park, and deciding Game 5’s back in the higher-seeded stadium.
The League Championship Series remains best-of-seven, with a 2-3-2 format. The World Series follows the same format, with the team with the better record earning home-field advantage.
One Other Change to Note
While baseball fans have grown accustomed to “Game 163,” with tiebreaker games determining playoff clubs, those no longer exist in the new format.
There are a series of tiebreakers implemented instead to determine playoff spots, with head-to-head record serving as the cleanest path to a team making the postseason.
Beyond that, MLB will go through a list that includes “intradivisional record,” then “interdivisional record,” and finally a team’s record in the second half of their season against teams within their league.
A full explanation can be found on the MLB website.