A Vastly New-Look Schedule Coming in 2023

One element of the new MLB CBA that was most intrigued by was somewhat buried in the fine print.  Starting next season, the schedule will look completely different.  I wasn't exactly sure what that meant.  All I knew was that teams would no longer be playing 19 games against their division rivals.  Well, now I've seen some of the details and I've gotta admit, I didn't realize how drastic the changes will be!

Beginning next year, teams will play at least one three-game series with every other team in the Majors!  The number of interleague games will go from 20 to 46, while the number of division games will go from 76 to 56.  And you'll play everybody in the other league at home every other year, with the exception of your interleague partner (Mets-Yankees, Dodgers-Angels, Cubs-White Sox, etc.), which will continue to be four-game home-and-home.

This is apparently something that's been a topic of discussion for a while now.  The Pirates' President drew up a plan that's very similar to what they've adopted about 10 years ago.  However, they had to wait until there was a universal DH to implement it, so as not to disadvantage American League teams playing 23 interleague road games.  With the universal DH now part of the game, it was time to pull the trigger on the balanced schedule.

The timing was right to implement it because of the additional wild card team in each league.  One of the biggest complaints regarding MLB's unbalanced schedule in recent years is the strength of schedule.  Specifically, you had teams from different divisions fighting for the same wild card while playing vastly different schedules, some of which were easier than others. 

Take the Blue Jays, for example.  They won 91 games and finished fourth!  The White Sox won 93 games and ran away with the AL Central, where no one else was even above .500 (second-place Cleveland had 80 wins).  Those three AL East teams were fighting for a wild card with the Mariners, who got to play 57 games against Oakland, Texas and the Angels.

Interleague play was another issue.  More specifically, how frequent some interleague matchups were and how sporadic some others were.  For example, the San Diego Padres didn't play a series in Toronto until 2016...in the 20th season of interleague play!  Or how in Albert Pujols' decade with the Angels, he returned to St. Louis a grand total of once.  Speaking of the Cardinals, they went 14 years between series at Yankee Stadium (2003-2017).  That's such a long gap it was five years before one closed and eight years after another opened between visits.

I can understand how frustrating that might've been for some owners!  Love them or hate them, teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers sell tickets.  So it makes sense that owners would want them to come to their stadium...especially owners in the opposite league who aren't guaranteed to see them every year.

For the last 20-so years, MLB has had the heavily unbalanced schedule where you play six series against each of your division opponents every year (three at home, three away).  That obviously meant a lot of Yankees-Red Sox and Giants-Dodgers and Cubs-Cardinals games.  But it also meant there were a lot of Pirates-Brewers and Tigers-Royals games.  And, frankly, fans can only get so pumped for a Pirates-Brewers game on a random Tuesday night in June, let alone a meaningless one in late September.

Under the current schedule format, you play 18 different teams at home every season.  Fifteen of those 18 are the same every year (your four division opponents, the other 10 teams in your league, and your interleague partner).  Under the new format, you'll play 22 teams at home each season, with every interleague opponent coming in every other year (instead of at some undetermined time in the future). 

So, it's not really a surprise that the owners pushed for a balanced (or, at least more balanced) schedule.  Frankly, I'm surprised it took so long.  Although, it makes complete sense that they wanted to wait until there was a universal DH to implement it, so I can understand why they waited to do it.

While I'm sure the traditionalists will make a stink about teams playing so many interleague games, they seem to have struck a good balance.  The incredibly disproportionate number of division games got redundant.  But, they didn't overload it on interleague, either.  One series against every team is fine.  And, the number of games you play against the 10 other teams in your league won't change.  It's been one series at home, one on the road, and it will continue to be.  That's important.

As for how the math works out, it's actually fairly straightforward.  You play 26 series at home, 26 on the road.  Two against your division opponents, one against each of the other 10 teams in your league, one against your interleague partner is 19.  That leaves seven at home and seven away.  Which adds up to?  Fourteen!  How perfect is that?!

It probably won't be completely "balanced" since they'll have to finagle it a little to get to 81 games, most likely by having a random four-game series against one of your non-division intraleague opponents.  But, all-in-all, this is as close as MLB is able to get to a schedule that resembles what they do in the NHL and NBA, where they play a home-and-home with every team in the other conference every season (I'm obviously talking about normal seasons here, not the pandemic-adjusted schedules).

Will it be odd to see every team from the National League on the Yankees' 2023 schedule?  Yes.  Will it take an adjustment to know that, moving forward, everybody will play each of the other 29 teams in the Majors every season?  Yes.  Does it have the potential to be exciting?  Absolutely!  Who doesn't want to see Yankees-Dodgers or Red Sox-Cubs every season?!