Report: MLB to Expand Playoffs This Season to Include Extra Wild Card Teams

Making the playoffs just got a little bit easier for Major League Baseball.

Commissioner Bud Selig and MLB are expected to announce on Thursday that each league will get an extra wild card team in 2012, according to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal.

The announcement, which has long been rumored, could be coming as soon as Thursday according to Rosenthal, who says a there are only a few "loose ends" left to tie up. Initially, the players union resisted the idea of extra playoff teams until the Houston Astros switch leagues to balance out the AL and NL with 15 teams apiece. Now, it has apparently relented. 

It's expected that the two wild card teams from each league will have a one-game playoff to determine who advances to the ALDS, which will make for some high drama late in the season.