Max Scherzer floats 'ghost win' playoff proposal with MLB labor talks set to resume Sunday

NEW YORK — Max Scherzer favors a radical reworking of the playoffs, one that would have the higher seed in the first round of a 14-team postseason start off a best-of-five series with a 1-0 lead.

Major League Baseball and locked-out players, who resume talks Sunday, both would expand the postseason from 10 teams — that's been the field since 2012, other than the 16 teams in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

The union prefers 12 and the parties appear headed toward that number, but Scherzer said players would consider 14 if clubs would agree to the «ghost win» format.

Under MLB's 14-team plan, the division winner with the best regular-season record in each league would get a bye and advance directly to the Division Series. The two other division winners would choose their opponents and be at home for an entire best-of-three round.

The division winner with the second-best record would choose its opponent from among the three lowest-seeded wild-card teams. The division winner with the third-best record would then get to pick from among the remaining two wild cards. The top wild card would face whichever team is left over after the division winners make their choices and also play all games at home.

Selections would be made on a televised show.

«We felt like competition could be eroded in that scenario, and we had specific examples of different players who spoke up that highlighted that specifically,» Scherzer said after Tuesday's breakdown in labor talks.

«Continuing on from those division winners down, we didn't see the proper incentive for those other two division winners,» the New York Mets pitcher added. «We didn't understand why they didn't want to take us up on a more competitive format.»

The lockout was in it 94th