MLB made a change recently, and they probably won’t stop making changes so long as they aim for franchise and playoff expansion
2025 will be the third year of MLB’s more-balanced schedule, wherein each team plays a series against every other team at least once, and games against each division rival tally 13 instead of the previous 19.
My question, prompted by me noticing that the Braves are scheduled to play the Pirates again today after also playing them yesterday (a rarity in Spring Training, where teams don’t play series against one another), is how you feel about this iteration of the balanced schedule? Does MLB need to balance it even more? Or was the old version better?
Of course, your arguments can go either way here depending on your preference. More balance helps to even out the rewards in an environment with a lot of variation in division strength (thanks for nothing, Central divisions). But, less balance makes a division squabble more meaningful. It’s probably the case that MLB is going to expand the league, expand the playoffs again, and do away with division ranking mattering eventually — they may even do away with the league mattering, which would justify a fully-balanced schedule. But that’s also somewhat annoying for travel and game viewership, so it might be a fits-and-starts sort of thing.
Anyway, you have the question, have at it.