Ten things we learned from the 2023 MLB playoffs - ESPN

The MLB playoffs are over, and it's time to move our focus to the long offseason of moves teams will make with positioning for the 2024 playoffs in mind. But before we totally turn the page, let's look back at the lessons that can be learned from the 2023 playoffs by covering 10 questions that are still lingering, with many of them also looking forward to what teams will do this winter.

Does the playoff format need to change?

This was the most asked question throughout the playoffs because so many favorites lost early in October. Despite all of the discourse about what happened this postseason, my answer is no — and not because this is a perfect format or some appeal to tradition.

The question really boils down to what you want out of a postseason. For example, European soccer hands out championships that put an emphasis on winning the regular-season title, then has playoffs that are a separate competition with different hardware and glory, seeded based on the regular season. That gives value to performance over the long regular season with its big sample size that suggests a real signal to the best team while also keeping the excitement, trophy and added revenue of a tournament-style postseason.

Maybe you hear that solution and give a knee-jerk no to acknowledging regular-season success along with the postseason champion. Fine. But what do you want?

It can't be that all the top seeds sweep, because then the playoffs serve no purpose. It can't be that it's all upsets because then people argue, like they did this year, that the playoffs need to only include the very best teams. The answer is somewhere in the middle, but how do you calibrate that: to whose tastes? And how do you make up for the lost revenue of fewer