Is there an effect of the MLB postseason bye week?

In 2022, the MLB debuted a new playoff format that included another team in the playoffs, a bye week for the first and second seed in each conference and the wild card expanding from a one game winner take all, to a three-game series hosted by the higher seed.

One of the biggest questions going into the playoffs was how the bye will affect those teams who earn it. Was the bye going to help or would it prove to be more of an issue with getting out of the groove of playoff baseball.

It has taken some time for teams to get used to the bye. With the passing of the 2024 division series, teams who earn the bye are 6-6 through the first three years of the playoffs.

This season was the most successful season with three of the teams with a bye advancing past the division series.

Baseball is a hard sport to stop playing and keep your flow. You can’t replicate the movement of a 95 mph slider, or a 75 mph curveball, just as pitching to a batter in a game with different situations is different than throwing in the bullpen.

Baseball is one of those sports where game speed is an entirely different sport than practice speed.

In 2022, only half the teams were in the bottom half of batting average, home runs and on base percentage.

The pitching for half the teams with the bye also fell in the top half of home runs given up, and the bottom half in strikeouts, and ERA with three teams in the bottom half in WHIP.

In 2023, three of the teams with the bye all fell into the lower half of the standings in batting average, home runs, and on base percentage.

The pitching was not as affected in 2023 as teams with the bye only had two teams in the bottom half of the rankings in ERA, strikeouts and three teams in the bottom half in WHIP. Three of the teams with the bye ranked in the top of the postseason in home runs given up.

In 2024, the Phillies were the only team to fall in the division series. They were worst in the postseason in ERA, second worst in WHIP and middle of the pack in strikeouts. The Dodgers, Guardians and Yankees all rank in the top half in ERA and WHIP.

The Philles could not get out of an inning with only a single three up, three down inning out of the bullpen with the highest ERA in the postseason at 11.37.

Their batting suffered as they had two total runs in the first five innings of all four games they played combined and the bottom half of the lineup going 8 for 69 at the plate.

The added bye week was a surprising call from the start. The loss of the single game wild card especially caused an uproar.

The preparation for the division series has taken longer than it ever has for the top seeds and teams have found more failure than not up to this season.

Some teams would rather miss the bye than make it with wild card teams like the 2022 Phillies, 2023 Rangers, and the 2024 Mets who went into the playoffs hot and found it hard to cool off.

A team with the bye is likely to win the World Series for a second time out of three years with the Dodgers leading the Mets 3-1 and the AL seeing both the top seeds in the ALCS.

The bye may prove to be a weapon after all if teams can figure out how to weaponize it instead of the time off hurting the flow of a team.

Tristan Kunec is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email tqk5432@psu.edu.