Ok, so this will probably never happen or will take 20 years, but the playoff format for MLB shouldn't add one playoff team in the one game winner goes on. I think the perferct format would be almost identical to NFL. Instead of 10 teams, you have 12.

Alright, so first off, split each league into only 2 divisions each. Each divisional winner gets a bye(true incentive to win division still) then you have 4 teams in each league win a wild card spot, then you have 4 series play a best of 3, and the winners move on to face the divisional winners, and you have 8 teams remaining and keep the rest of it exactly as it is now. Now, baseball's argument is the season is long enough so, cut the season back to 160 games, and that pretty much makes up for the added bonus games.

My biggest problem for the one-off is that a team could easily finish second in the entire league and then have to face, say a justin verlander or felix hernandez in a one game playoff. Say in a couple years the blue jays finish second to the yankees. they have 102 wins and we have 99 wins. We could have to face a team like Detroit or say Seattle who got 89 wins but have just one dominant pitcher a la Verlander or Hernandez. There might not be any way they'd beat a better team in a whole series but one game.

It doesn't have to be the Blue Jays, could be Boston or Tampa, or Texas, but point is you could really be allowing a great team to be eliminated just by a bad call in a big game or beaten by one pitcher. I think there's been a few times where Boston has had the second best record in the AL or even all of baseball and could've been eliminated in a silly one game playoff. That doesn't really seem so bad, but it could happen to us some day in the future.

Alright, let me know what you preference would be.

Keep as is

10 teams with a one-off

12 teams NFL-style with a best of 3 wild card round

16 team a la NBA, NHL (NEVER happen, nor do I want)