As MLB’s postseason begins, both No. 1 seeds — the Brewers and Rays — are small-market teams, and their performance “from here forward will be viewed against the backdrop of baseball’s competitive balance and a likely labor dispute in the offseason,” according to Noah Trister of the AP. The big-spending Dodgers won the last two World Series, which has “gone a long way toward creating the impression that baseball needs substantial changes.” The Brewers have ranked dead last in the CBA’s revenue sharing “market score,” while the Rays — another team from a smaller market — are the top seed in the AL. Yet another small-market team, the Guardians, also have a first-round bye in the AL. It is “naive to think one year’s results would have a huge effect on negotiations between the union and management,” but if the Brewers, Rays or Guardians “go all the way, that could certainly change the narrative a bit” (AP, 9/28).

WHAT THE LEAGUE THINKS: THE ATHLETIC’s Ken Rosenthal writes “no outcome this October will change the calculus for the owners.” Even if the small-markets Brewers, Rays or Guardians win the World Series, the league “will continue its push for a salary cap, contending the sport lacks sufficient parity and is effectively broken.” Revenue disparity between large- and small-market clubs “is a legitimate concern.” The league and players’ union “need to adopt significant measures to make the playing field more level.” But the league’s argument for “greater competitive balance, if not a red herring, is at least an argument of convenience.” And “not a particularly strong one, if you watched the regular season.” If the Dodgers become the first team since the 1998-00 Yankees to win three straight World Series titles, the league “surely will use that data point in its ongoing pitch that only a salary cap can save the sport.” And if the Brewers or Rays win their first Series, or the Guardians their first since 1948, the league will “consider it an aberration, a single-season outcome that means little when compared to the larger sample size of the previous 10” (THE ATHLETIC, 9/28).

WHAT HAPPENS DOESN’T MATTER: In L.A., Bill Shaikin notes while fans may hear a “lot about how the way this postseason sets up, or how it plays out, could impact” CBA talks, the reality is “nothing that happens this October will be relevant to the new labor agreement.” Owners were “ready to fight for more than a year” before the Dodgers last offseason signed free agents P Edwin Díaz and RF Kyle Tucker and then traded for P Tarik Skubal in August. If the Dodgers do not complete a three-peat, owners “are not going to suddenly back off a salary cap.” Additionally, if the Brewers or Rays win the World Series, owners will “say that’s the exception that proves the rule” (L.A. TIMES, 9/28).