MLB playoff format forces wildcard series to debate rest or rest

It's mid-September and the third year of Major League Baseball's expanded playoff format, a tournament that has only increased the level of volatility in crowning the pennant winners and World Series champions.

This was accompanied by a moderate overreaction to a two-year sample size that may prove to be deviant.

In both 2022 and 2023, the National League's No. 3 wildcard seed – the last team in the field – has a winning streak leading up to the World Series. The defending World Series champions, Texas Rangers, have also made it past the wildcard round.

And with that surprise win, the mindset has taken hold that it's better to be relegated to the best-of-three wild-card series, that winning two more games is a more favorable position than automatically competing in the Division Series – and the five-day, potentially rhythm-destroying break that comes with it.