MLB needs to expand wild-card playoff to best-of-3 series

The addition of a second wild-card spot four years ago has so far been a complete success for baseball, but now it's time for commissioner Rob Manfred to take the next step.

While Major League Baseball should avoid adding additional teams to the postseason, a revision to the one-game wild-card playoff format is needed - and as Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein revealed this week, it has already been discussed.

The current system puts a significant weight on winning the division, but it doesn't hold much of an advantage for the teams that do so. As evidenced by both of last year's wild-card game winners advancing to the World Series, MLB should be doing more to reward the division winners, while making it harder for the wild-card qualifiers to advance.

Adjusting the wild-card game into a best-of-three series would be in the league's best interest.

A best-of-three format would help further justify the regular season's importance as teams try to avoid a grueling wild-card series with extra travel. Owning the best record in your league would not only guarantee home-field advantage for both your division series and league championship series - and possibly the World Series - but it would also ensure the best record gets a series with a wild-card winner coming off a tough two- or three-game set.

More teams would likely risk making a push to the playoffs if it guaranteed them something more than a 50/50 shot in one game. Maybe the Detroit Tigers hang on to David Price and Yoenis Cespedes at this year's non-waiver deadline if they were only 3 1/2 games back of a potential three-game series, instead of a winner-take-all crapshoot.

The concerns that might prevent this from happening are obvious. Time is sensitive - there likely aren't enough dates between the end of the season and the start of the division series to squeeze in two three-game sets - and of course many ballparks get colder as October moves along. But a day-night doubleheader could help alleviate some of those concerns. While a doubleheader isn't ideal, it certainly would make for an exciting day of baseball. Epstein acknowledged that idea was rejected a few years ago, though maybe it's time to revisit it.

CURRENT FORMAT

PROPOSED FORMAT

The race for the top wild-card berth would also receive an injection of importance, as the winner of the first spot would get to host the first two games of the series, making home-field advantage that much more important.

MLB could also curtail the schedule to start a couple days earlier, or attempt to limit the scheduling issues by cutting the regular season to 160 games. The league could also consider playing the series in a neutral site, if travel remains a concern.

This year, MLB is faced with the prospect of the NL wild-card game pitting baseball's second-best record against its third-best, in the form of the Cubs and their divisional rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's almost unfair to think that one of their seasons will be done after just one playoff game. A three-game wild-card series would do each of these teams, and their Division Series opponents, justice.