Major League Baseball proposed cutting the regular season to 154 games and lengthening early playoff rounds during collective bargaining discussions on Thursday, though union officials emphasized the overhaul remains tied to a contested salary cap.
The schedule reduction, which would take effect in 2029, would mark baseball’s first 154-game slate since the early 1960s, according to reports from ABC News and USA Today. Under the framework, teams would play 154 games across 180 days rather than the customary 162 games over 187 days. Most clubs would receive Mondays off to protect player health, with exceptions for holiday dates and up to two nationally televised games. To balance the calendar, teams would also play four split doubleheaders against division rivals.
Expanded Postseason and Opponent Selection
MLB also sought sweeping adjustments to October baseball. Beginning in 2029, the league plans to stretch the Division Series from a best-of-five format to a best-of-seven matchup, potentially adding as many as eight games to the postseason calendar. The postseason would extend to a maximum of 42 days by integrating nine additional rest days, providing starting pitchers more opportunities to throw on standard rest and eliminating weekday afternoon starts that have struggled to fill ballparks.
Additionally, the league proposed an opponent-selection system beginning in 2027. Under this setup, the third-seeded division winner in each league would choose whether to face the fifth or sixth seed in the wild-card round. Following that round, the top overall seed would choose which advancing wild-card winner to face in the Division Series.
MLB spokesman Glen Caplin explained the rationale in a statement released Thursday, saying: “Returning to a 154-game schedule would allow us to introduce a weekly off day, which is good for player health, while also creating a new national broadcast window to showcase our most exciting teams and players.” Caplin added that allowing top seeds to choose their matchups “would create compelling storylines, intensify existing rivalries and create new ones.”
The league pledged that player compensation would not drop to reflect fewer games, with performance bonus thresholds adjusted proportionally, ABC News reported.
Salary Cap Hurdle and Impending Expiration
Despite the structural changes, the proposal faces fierce resistance from the Major League Baseball Players Association. Union officials reiterated Thursday that management made the scheduling package conditional on the union agreeing to a payroll cap, an economic mechanism players have rejected for decades.
“Players will weigh in on these proposals, and we will respond at the bargaining table,” the MLBPA said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the league once again made clear that all of its proposals are contingent on players’ agreement to a salary cap, a system that guts player rights and compensation, as well as its other anti-player proposals.”
Baseball’s five-year collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1. If negotiators fail to reach an accord before the deadline, team owners are widely expected to impose a lockout that could disrupt the 2027 season. Whether both sides can bridge the divide over a salary cap in the coming weeks remains uncertain.
