The field is set for the next round of the MLB postseason. The Houston Astros will face the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series while the Philadelphia Phillies battle the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League. Of the four remaining contenders for the championship, only Houston won their division; the other three all dispatched heavy favorites in the Division Series.

Regardless of whether it’s good for baseball to have the best regular-season teams eliminated two rounds before the World Series, the MLB postseason structure is working exactly the way it was designed. Three of the four remaining clubs finished 90-72 and the Diamondbacks barely eked into October at 84-78. Goliaths such as the Atlanta Braves (104-58), Baltimore Orioles (101-61), Los Angeles Dodgers (100-62), Tampa Bay Rays (99-63), and Milwaukee Brewers (92-70) were already knocked out in the best-of-three Wild Card or best-of-five Division Series rounds.

Baseball is inherently more unpredictable than other major sports. Even though the superior teams had better odds in each series matchup, they weren’t prohibitive favorites. FanGraphs gave the Dodgers a 62.4% chance of winning their matchup against Arizona, which means the underdogs would still be expected to win more than a third of the time if they were to replay the series, even though they won 16 fewer games in the regular season. All 30 MLB ballclubs are capable of winning three straight games against any other. The 50-112 Oakland A’s won seven in a row from June 6-13, including five against the Brewers and Rays.

There are financial and labor motivations for MLB to make the postseason as random as possible—just as there are reasons for the players to push against it. The size and structure of the playoff field was a major sticking point in collective bargaining negotiations between the league and the MLB Players Association during the lockout prior to the 2022 season. The 14-team postseason format was “probably atop owners’ wish list,” according to Dayn Perry of CBS Sports. Agreeing to the 14-team field was one of the biggest concessions the players made in the deal.

In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, MLB went a step further, insisting on a 16-team bracket. This marked the only time in MLB history that sub-.500 clubs made the playoffs—the Astros and Brewers made the cut with 29-31 records and Houston came within a game of the World Series.

If the goal is to win the championship—as it always should be—having an unpredictable playoff system benefits the owners and hurts the players. The more arbitrary the postseason, the less teams are incentivized to upgrade their roster beyond a certain level of quality. If a 90-win team has only slightly lesser odds of lifting the trophy than a 100-win team, the front office is disincentivized to spend money and resources above what’s necessary for a 90-win roster.

This was essentially confirmed by Seattle Mariners president Jerry Dipoto in his postmortem press conference at the end of the regular season, claiming his goal is to win only 54% of the time.

A team that succeeds 54% of the time will finish with 87 wins. Seattle missed the playoffs this year with an 88-74 record, though 87 would’ve sufficed in the National League. Dipoto apologized for his comments two days later, but the cat was out of the bag. At least one MLB team is confirmed striving to do as little as possible above what is required to make the playoffs rather than building the best ballclub in the game. Undoubtedly, others operate with a similar philosophy.

This has obvious implications for team payrolls and free-agent signings. If the Mariners aren’t interested in becoming the Dodgers, they’re less likely to sign top-tier free agents or surpass the luxury tax thresholds. The less money teams deem necessary to spend, the less players receive in aggregate, which is why the playoff format was such a bone of contention during the lockout.

There are short term drawbacks to having relatively weaker teams advance in October. A Diamondbacks-Rangers World Series probably wouldn’t juice TV ratings. Ideally, MLB would have the Yankees or Red Sox play the Dodgers or Cubs every year, but that’s less likely to come to fruition with a postseason format built for chaos. (The Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs all missed the playoffs anyway.)

Nevertheless, the outcome of this year’s postseason affirms Dipoto’s strategy. The best teams always have greater chances of winning the World Series, but is there enough of a boost in getting from 90 wins to 100 to justify the expenditure? For some franchises, the answer might still be “yes,” but for many others, it isn’t. For MLB owners, that’s precisely the point.