In-season tournaments are all the rage in the sports world, so you can’t help but wonder what a Major League Baseball version would look like?
Unlike the NBA, nothing like that exists in MLB. And unlike NASCAR, nothing like that is officially planned for the foreseeable future. So the door is open for any random fool to get creative and throw in suggestions.
If you’re looking to host a tournament with minimal disruption to your schedule and normal operations, here’s how you can do it.
- 2 leagues, 6 groups, 5 teams: The 15 teams in each of the American League and National League are divided into three groups of five teams each.
- Group play: Within the group, each team will play the other four teams in separate three-match series. Only the top teams in each group advance, with all six teams seeded for future competition.
- Quarterfinals and semifinals: The No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in each league will play three consecutive games for the right to play the next three games against the No. 1 seed, with the No. 1 seed provisionally receiving a bye.
- Championship game: The last two surviving teams will play one game on the Wednesday after the All-Star Game as part of the All-Star festivities. Yes, just one.
- prize: Bonuses for players and draft picks for the final two teams.
Of course, this is just a general idea of what an in-season MLB tournament looks like. Let’s take a closer look at how each of these elements works.
How to sort groups
While the group structure outlined above is similar to that of the NBA, you don’t have to follow MLB in how you categorize your teams.
Groups of five teams in the NBA’s in-season tournaments are “randomly drawn,” but that’s not actually the case. Before the draw, each team is first divided into one of the five pots of three teams arranged according to the previous season’s record.
If the idea is to create balance within each group, a simpler approach would be to put together five teams whose combined records from previous seasons are roughly even.
Here’s an example of what the 2024 in-season tournament group could have looked like, according to 2023 team records.
AL Group 1 (395-415)
- Baltimore Orioles: 101-61
- Toronto Blue Jays: 89-73
- New York Yankees: 82-80
- Los Angeles Angels: 73 wins, 89 losses
- Oakland Athletics: 50-112
AL Group 2 (401-409)
- Tampa Bay Rays: 99-63
- Texas Rangers: 90 wins, 72 losses
- Detroit Tigers: 78-84
- Boston Red Sox: 78 wins, 84 losses
- Kansas City Royals: 56 wins, 106 losses
AL Group 3 (402-408)
- Houston Astros: 90-72
- Seattle Mariners: 88-74
- Minnesota Twins: 87-75
- Cleveland Guardians: 76-86
- Chicago White Sox: 61 wins, 101 losses
NL Group 1 (409-401)
- Atlanta (104-58)
- Milwaukee Brewers (92-70)
- San Francisco Giants (79-83)
- New York Mets (75-87)
- Colorado Rockies (59-103)
NL Group 2 (409-401)
- Los Angeles Dodgers (100-62)
- Arizona Diamondbacks (84-78)
- Chicago Cubs (83-79)
- St. Louis Cardinals (71-91)
- Washington Nationals (71-91)
NL Group 3 (414-396)
- Philadelphia Phillies (90-72)
- Miami Marlins (84-78)
- Cincinnati Reds (82-80)
- San Diego Padres (82-80)
- Pittsburgh Pirates (76-86)
The balance here isn’t perfect, but the highest winning percentage is .511 (National League Group 3) and the lowest winning percentage is .488 (AL Group 1). This is the difference between an 83-win team and a 79-win team.
How group play, promotion, and seeding work
Scheduling-wise, probably the only way this would work is if group play happens early in the season.
Two intra-group series will be held at a time, with other teams ideally playing interleague series. Thankfully, a balanced schedule allows for plenty of those things.
This way, the survivors of group play will clash in subsequent rounds for the first time all year. Regardless of the original schedule, it may be possible to change it so that the first matchup of his two teams in particular is his three-game set at the higher seed’s home park.
The following tiebreakers will determine how the group play winners are determined and the quarterfinal and semifinal seedings determined.
- Recording in group play
- Run differential in group play
- Hit difference in group play
- Base running difference in group play
For example, if two teams win 8-4 in group play, and one team outscores the other team by 20 points compared to 10, the first team deserves the higher seed.
Championship game mechanics
Importantly, the championship game of MLB’s in-season tournament is essentially an exhibition.
This is how the NBA’s in-season tournaments work, where the championship game is a separate entity rather than a regular season affair. The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers to win the championship on December 11, 2023, but you wouldn’t know it just by looking at the Lakers’ regular season schedule.
Would it be fairer if MLB’s in-season championships were decided by three-game series, like the first round of a tournament? Yes, they are.
But this concept poses a scheduling nightmare, as each AL team is guaranteed only one series against each National League team, and vice versa.
It is not possible to postpone all interleague series until after the first three rounds of the tournament. And even if the only series between the two surviving teams hadn’t happened yet, what if it wasn’t scheduled until the final weekend of the season? Waiting that long sucks the energy out of the whole thing. It will be.
Besides, shouldn’t the in-season tournaments culminate with a capital E event?
We accomplish that by hosting one winner-take-all game as part of our All-Star festivities. And if the Home Run Derby was on a Monday, the All-Star Game was on a Tuesday, and the Championship Game was on a Wednesday, the only real loss would be that the participants in the latter would have the day off.
Probably not ideal for them, but it’s not difficult to make it worthwhile.
What’s in it for the team, players and fans?
Similar to the NBA’s mid-season tournaments, the MLB version requires players to receive cash prizes.
In the NBA, each player on the last team standing receives $500,000 in prize money. Although MLB has a larger roster than his NBA (26 players vs. 15 players), his $200,000 payout to the winner seems fair. There will be small bonuses along the way, as well as a special cash prize for his MVP of the tournament.
What’s in it for teams, but what about a way to get their hands on the sport’s most valuable currency?
Because we’re talking about young talent, we’re talking about draft picks. The winner could receive a pick right after the first round of next year’s draft, in the same spot as the prospect promotion incentive pick. The runner-up has a chance to earn a pick in one of the competitive balance rounds.
And in all of this, it’s not just the players or teams that are at stake, but bragging rights. I hope the fans will be a part of it too.
Granted, most MLB fans will watch in-season tournaments for the gimmick that is obviously going to be the case. But gimmicks can also be fun. Star Wars Knights and bobblehead gifts are gimmicks, but people still like them. Why not? They liven things up. Keep things interesting. Break the monotony.
And above all else, that’s probably the point.
The MLB season is very long. feel Like a very, very long one. It’s unlikely that the in-season tournament will be any shorter, but this version will at least inject some excitement between Opening Day and the trade deadline, and for the playoff race to take center stage during the stretch run. It will leave the floor open.
In other words, you have much more to gain than to lose. So what the hell, MLB? i will try.
Record provided by Baseball Reference.
