In Defense of the New Wildcard

We have to start with this: MLB is not going to eliminate the wildcard. Given this, as I said at the time it seems pretty clear that a wildcard play-in game/short series is a substantial improvement over the status quo. As long as we’re stuck with the wildcard, the second-best alternative is to substantially devalue it and simultaneously make pennant races between good teams possible again. And as to complaints that in some cases the wildcard team will be better than other division winners, there’s an easy way to avoid the injustice: win your damn division. You don’t, feel lucky that you’re in the playoffs at all.