There was so much anticipation for the release of next year's MLB schedule. It wasn't NFL level, but the interest level was definitely higher than usual. That's because ever since it was officially announced that MLB would dramatically change the schedule next season and have every team in the Majors play each of the other 29, people wondered how exactly the schedule would look. Now those questions have been answered (for the most part).
When they first announced the basic template for the new schedule format, they said it would be 14 games against each division opponent (seven home, seven away). The actual number is 13, so instead of seven and seven, it's seven and six. That, presumably, will alternate each year.
My guess is there were two main reasons behind this. The first is that they no longer play "Game 163" to break ties in the standings. It's now based entirely on the season series. If the season series were 14 games, it's possible that it could end even at 7-7. With a 13-game season series, though, that's not possible.
The other reason addresses one of the potential issues I brought up when I initially blogged about this topic. When teams play in London (or Paris or Japan or Australia), it's two games. Other than taking one of each team's home games (and thus creating a fifth series between the two), how would they make a two-game series work when they're scheduled to play seven in each stadium? Would they actually schedule all of the remaining games as a five-game series? Well, the answer to that question is "No!"
MLB is returning to London next season with two games between the Cubs and Cardinals, so I checked out the Cubs' and Cardinals' schedules to see exactly how they were doing it. As it turns out, they're doing it basically just like they did when the Yankees played the Red Sox in London. They're Cardinals home games, so the only series they'll play against each other in St. Louis is a four-game set from July 27-30.
Obviously, the initial idea between 14 division games was to have the number of non-division games be balanced, as well. The way the math worked out was six games against each of the other 10 teams in your own league, a three-game series at home, a three-game series on the road. No random four-game series. Well, we'll still have the random four-game series. There'll just be four per team instead of six.
This is actually the one element of the rumored format that I really liked. The non-division teams you play the extra game against always seems so random, and teams end up playing a four-game series against the same opponent every year. As long as that extra game rotates between all 10 teams, I don't have too big of a problem with it, though.
That actually gives MLB some more flexibility, too, so I don't really mind it as much as I thought I would. The Red Sox, of course, always have their 11 a.m. home game on Patriot's Day, which is a Monday. And, since the game is at 11:00 on a Monday, it has to be a four-game wraparound series. If they didn't have the non-division four-game series, they'd be limited to only AL East opponents as options. Instead, they can play anybody in the American League (and, in fact, it'll be the Angels getting the 8 a.m. Pacific first pitch in 2023).
Likewise, the Nationals always have an 11 a.m. home game on the Fourth of July. The Fourth of July, obviously, isn't on the same day of the week every year like Patriot's Day, but it does occasionally fall on a Monday. And when it does, the Nationals can finish off a four-game series against anybody instead of just their four NL East opponents.
Speaking of NL East opponents, one of the quirkiest things about the 2023 schedule involves the Mets and Marlins. They open the season against each other in Miami, then play again a week later in the Mets' first home series. Then they don't play again until the final two weeks of the season, when they play one series in each stadium. So, they'll play each other in seven of their first 10 games and six of their final 13 against...and none of the 133 in between! (Which is still not as quirky as the teams that ended up with a six-game series to end this season because of a lockout-postponed April series being moved.)
Of course, the whole purpose of this new schedule format is to increase the number of interleague games each team plays. It'll more than double from 20 to 46, and that's where things look very, very different. The Yankees open next season at home...against the Giants and Phillies! The Mets have a road trip that takes them to Kansas City and Baltimore. I haven't looked at every team's schedule, but I'm sure everybody's got something quirky like that.
I am a little confused by how they chose which interleague opponents you play at home and which you play on the road, though. This year, the AL East plays the NL Central. The Yankees have a home-and-home with the Pirates, visit St. Louis and Milwaukee, and had home series against the Cubs and Reds. So, you'd figure that the NL Central teams they play at home next season would be the Cardinals and Brewers. Yet, when the schedule came out, the Cubs were set to come to New York, while the Yankees will visit St. Louis for the second straight year.
In the long run, does that really matter? No! The Cardinals and the six other teams they only visit will come to Yankee Stadium in 2024, while they'll visit the seven teams they host next season. That, again is the whole point! You'll play everybody at home at least every other year! I just found it odd that they're playing the same interleague opponents in the same stadium two years in a row!
Playing everybody in the Majors also means you're making an extra West Coast trip. Every non-West division team usually only goes out there twice a season, but that'll increase to three for most teams. And for the ones that only have to go to the Pacific time zone twice, they're looking at a longer trip (which is sort of a throwback to the days when you'd go to the West Coast twice each season and play all three teams in one trip both times).
It'll depend on how many West division interleague teams you end up playing, too. Depending on whether you count the Rockies (I don't), there are either seven or eight West Coast teams. Which means you're going out there either five or six times a year. (The West Coast teams, meanwhile, will get fewer games in their own time zone, which is one of the few drawbacks of the new schedule.)
Overall, though, the new schedule achieves its objective. At least on paper. Fans will see every team in the Majors, and 22 different opponents will travel to your ballpark. So, from that perspective, it's already a success. Even if it'll take some getting used to!
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