In honor of March Madness…
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. A tournament is anathema to MLB, unless it’s the playoffs, in which case everyone suddenly pretends that somehow a tournament full of short series is both innately important and reflective of talent or whatever. But what if MLB had a tournament anyway? They had an opportunity to do something wild during 2020 but opted for a 60-game season instead, so it’s possible we’ll never find out. But we can dream.
My idea, half-baked: double elimination with a series of five-game sets with no off-days in between them (winning your series early gets you extra rest). The big twist: whenever a team is eliminated, both teams that dealt it series losses get to pick one player from the eliminated team to add to their roster. That way, the biggest stars get to stay in the tournament, and teams have to navigate awkward cohesion/playing time drama.
I dunno, I think it’d be fun in an alternative universe where somehow an actual season isn’t viable, and it’d probably work better in the eventual “literally everyone gets a playoff berth” world that MLB seems to be heading towards with playoff expansion.