Bud Selig: MLB To Expand To Four Wild Card Teams By 2013

MLB commissioner Bud Selig announced today that effective 2013 the league will add two additional wild card teams, according to a tweet from Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune.

According to Rogers, Selig would like to make the change to the playoff format for the 2012 playoffs, however it seems much more likely that the change will occur in 2013. Selig says that under the new system teams that win their respective division will be rewarded more so than under the current system.

As it currently stands, the winner of each of the league’s three divisions, plus one wild card in each league, form to make an eight team playoff system. Under the current system, the only penalty for claiming the wild card as opposed to the divisional title is that the wild card team is forced to play the opponent within their league with the best record in the opening round of the playoffs.