Anyone with a feel for baseball knows the format of the expanded postseason in 2020 makes no sense long-term. The flawed, makeshift 16-team tournament is a one-off, a device to create excitement at the end of a 60-game regular season, one of many adjustments to the game stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
So, when commissioner Rob Manfred said in an online event through Hofstra University’s business school that he was a “fan of the expanded playoffs,” he was not necessarily endorsing the precise format we will see next month, the one that, according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, has a “non-existent” benefit for division winners.
Manfred also was not specifically talking about a 16-team field, considering Major League Baseball’s pre-pandemic idea, as first reported by the New York Post’s Joel Sherman, was for 14 teams.
And he definitely was not speaking with complete authority, knowing the Players Association must…
