Since the balance of money/power has shifted so heavily in favor of major market teams and baseball has no concerns about a level playing field, I propose this new structure. It’s loosely inspired by the English Premier League Pyramid, creating a tiered league based on payroll…

There are three levels….

Level 1(Premier Division)…teams with top 10 payrolls (roughly North of 100 million.) Two divisions/Ten teams. Top team in each division make the playoffs along with a wild card team representing the best record among remaining teams.

Premier East:

Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Cardinals, Tigers

Premier West

Dodgers, Giants, Angels, Rangers, White Sox

Level 2(Champion Division)…10 teams with middle 10 payrolls (roughly between 80-100 million.) Two Divisions/Ten Teams. Top team in each division make the playoffs along with a wild card team representing the best record among remaining teams.

Champion North

Cubs, Brewers, Blue Jays, Mets, Mariners

Champion South

Marlins, Braves, Nats, Orioles, Reds

Level 3(Contenders Division)…10 teams with the bottom payrolls (80 mil and below). Two Divisions/Ten Teams. Top team in each division make the playoffs.

Contenders East

Pirates, Indians, Rays, Royals, Twins

Contenders West

Rockies, DiamondBacks, Astros, Padres, A's

Playoff matchups would be played based on overall rankings. 1-8 seeds…Level 1 would be seeds 1-3, Level 2 would be seeds 4-6 with Level 3 as the 7 and 8 seeds. There would be a 7 games series with 1 v. 8, 2 v. 7, 3 v. 6, 4 v. 5. The winners would then play a 7 game series with the highest seed playing the lowest, The World Series would consist of the remaining two teams playing a 7 game series for the WS title.