In 2022, Major League Baseball (MLB) introduced a new postseason format, expanding the pool of teams and making significant changes to the Wild Card round.
This revamped format now includes a total of 12 teams, with an even distribution of six teams from each league, namely the American League and the National League.
This marks a notable increase from the previous postseason format, which featured 10 teams, with five from each league. Within this expanded playoff field, there are three division winners from each league, as well as three Wild Card teams per league.
One of the most prominent changes in this new format is the elimination of the Wild Card Game, which had been in use from 2012 to 2019 and then reinstated in 2021. Instead, the Wild Card Game has been replaced by a best-of-three Wild Card Series, offering a more extended and competitive opportunity for Wild Card teams to advance.
In the Wild Card Series, the No. 3 seed squares off against the No. 6 seed, while the No. 4 seed competes against the No. 5 seed. These Wild Card Series games are played at the home ground of the team with the higher seed, creating a fair but competitive environment.
The winners of these series move forward to the Division Series, while the losers are eliminated from postseason contention.
Is the MLB Division Series best of 5?
Throughout this revamped postseason structure, the Division Series retains its best-of-five format, featuring a 2-2-1 structure, with home-field advantage granted to the higher seed.
The League Championship Series and the World Series rounds continue to be best-of-seven series, following a 2-3-2 format, with home-field advantage based on regular-season records.
Finally, for the World Series, home-field advantage is awarded to the team with the best overall regular-season record in MLB, regardless of its postseason seeding within its respective league.
In cases where two teams share identical regular-season records, tiebreaker rules are applied to determine home-field advantage.
