Manfred: No plan to change playoff format despite Yankees, Red Sox historic pace
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred sees no issues with a potential scenario where either the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees finish the regular season with more than 100 wins and are forced to play in a wild-card game.
The longtime rivals own the top two records in baseball at the All-Star break. If the season ended today, New York would host the Seattle Mariners in the wild-card game despite having a better winning percentage than the Houston Astros and 10 more wins than the Cleveland Indians.
When asked prior to the All-Star Game on Tuesday if he were open to altering the current playoff format moving forward, Manfred said he's happy with the way things are and looks forward to the two powerhouses competing for the division title the next two months.
"When we went to one-game wild card, we did it for two fundamental reasons. We wanted to make sure that we did everything possible that teams played hard through a 162-game season. We take great pride that our regular season is meaningful and we always want it to be meaningful. How does our current system stack up on that goal? It seems to me that if the standings finished as they are today under the old system, the Yankees and Red Sox wouldn't care who won the American League East," Manfred said, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. "In contrast, under the new system we are going to be treated to a pennant race that goes all the way through to the end of September and they’re going to do everything they can to avoid playing in that one-game wild card.
"The second thing that we wanted to do is we wanted to disadvantage the wild-card team. There's sentiment out there that winning your division should get you some advantage. Seems to me we stack up pretty well on that one as well. ... So I'm pretty good with how it looks."
The Red Sox and Yankees are both on pace to win more than 100 games, which would mark the first time two teams in the same division finished with 100-plus wins since the Mariners and Oakland Athletics did so in 2001.