New Delhi, Oct. 9 -- Major League Baseball on Thursday asked its players to trade eight regular-season games for a longer October and a new right for the best clubs to choose their opponents. The package, tabled in the latest collective bargaining session, would cut the schedule from 162 games to 154, stretch the Division Series from best-of-five to best-of-seven, and let higher seeds pick opponents in the first two rounds.

The timing is awkward. The current labor deal must be replaced by December, and owners are still pushing a salary cap the union has refused. A lockout that could interrupt next season remains on the table if those talks stall.

"MLB has proposed returning to a 154-game Regular Season, best-of-seven Division Series, an...