In 2022, Major League Baseball added a third Wild Card team for each league in the postseason.
Many fans have issues with the added Wild Card team, but the real problem lies in the way the seeding system works. The way it is right now, the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds play and the winner goes on to play the No. 5 seed. The No. 3 seed plays the No. 6 seed to see who plays the No. 2 seed. This year's postseason is a great example of why that system is slightly flawed.
The Tampa Bay Rays were the No. 1 seed in the American League, and they had to play either the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees. The Rays, Red Sox and Yankees had the three best records in the American League, so no matter what, the Rays' reward for being the top seed was a bye and then playing either the second- or third-best team in the American League.
In the NFL, the top seeds in the NFC and AFC each get byes, just like in MLB. In baseball, there are two byes, but the biggest difference is what happens next in the NFL. The top seed does not simply play the winner of a predetermined game. They play the worst-seeded team that wins in the first round.
If baseball worked like that, the Rays would be playing the Chicago White Sox and the Yankees would be playing the Cleveland Guardians.
The argument against it is that the No. 3 seed should not lose to the No. 6 seed, theoretically. So the No. 2 seed would be playing the No. 3 seed, and then no matter what, the No. 1 seed would play the worst-seeded team to win in the Wild Card Series.
Well, theory is not reality. Ever since the third wild card team has been added, a No. 6 seed has beaten a No. 3 seed in the postseason.
The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals in 2022, the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Milwaukee Brewers in 2023, the Detroit Tigers beat the Houston Astros in 2024, the New York Mets beat the Brewers in 2024 and the Tigers beat the Guardians in 2025.
The 2022 Phillies and 2023 Diamondbacks went all the way to the World Series, beating the No. 2 seed along the way. Neither of those teams ended up facing that season's No. 1 seed, who had to play a better team to reach the League Championship Series.
There's no way to know if any of the No. 6 seeds that won or the No. 1 seeds that lost would have had different outcomes had they played each other. However, it does seem odd that the No. 1 seed could end up playing a better team than the No. 2 seed in any given year.