Earlier in September, Major League Baseball formally announced its plans for the unique 2020 postseason. These playoffs were already going to be unprecedented because of their expanded nature — 16 teams, or more than half the league, will make up the field — but the addition of neutral-site bubbles for the Division, Championship, and World Series rounds is a new wrinkle.
Here’s how the expanded postseason will work. Each of the first- and second-place division finishers will qualify, along with the two teams with the next-best records. The teams will then be paired off based on seeding (No. 1 vs. No. 8 and so on), after which they’ll play a best-of-three series in the higher seed’s ballpark. The winner will then advance to the traditional best-of-five Division Series. Unlike in years past, that series will remain in place at a neutral site.
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