CINCINNATI - Cutting the length of Major League Baseball's regular-season schedule could be tied to reconfiguring the postseason.

Baseball players are increasingly complaining of the toll of playing 162 games in 183 days. The schedule was 154 games before the AL added eight games when it expanded in 1961, and the National League adopted the new format when it added two teams for the 1962 season.

"A shortened schedule is a major, major economic issue," Commissioner Rob Manfred told the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday.

"We sell out in a lot of markets in terms of gates. The gates are really valuable to us. We have television commitments. Each local contract varies, but there are game guarantees that could be affected by a shortened season."