MLB Has Considered In-Season Tournament

""We've talked about split seasons. We've talked about in-season tournaments," Manfred said. "We do understand that 162 (games) is a long pull. I think the difficulty to accomplish those sort of in-season events, you almost inevitably start talking about fewer regular season games. It is a much more complicated thing in our sport than it is in other sports. Because of all of our season-long records, you're playing around with something that people care a lot about.""

""To be clear, it doesn't appear that either idea is under serious consideration right now. Manfred only addressed the topic when asked directly whether the league would have any interest in something modeled after the NBA Cup. He responded by pointing to the challenges of implementing something similar in baseball, even as he acknowledged that they've given the concept some thought within the league offices.""

""The NBA introduced that in-season tournament during the 2023-24 campaign. It runs for roughly six weeks within the first half of the regular season. It involves every team and begins with group play followed by knockout rounds. Most of the games count towards a team's regular season record. Players receive a cash bonus for winning or advancing deep into the tournament, and the winning team receives a trophy. The tournament has no impact on playoff seeding (aside from the games counting towards the regular season record).""

Major League Baseball has considered implementing split seasons and in-season tournaments. The league recognizes that a 162-game schedule makes adding such events complicated. Implementing in-season events would likely require reducing regular-season games. Baseball's series format and season-long records complicate adopting single-elimination tournament models. The NBA's in-season tournament runs about six weeks, involves group play and knockout rounds, and has games count toward the regular-season record. Any MLB tournament would likely differ from the NBA's model because of baseball's scheduling and playoff structure. Financial incentives and trophies are possible but would not necessarily change playoff seeding beyond regular-season records.

Read at MLB Trade Rumors