Now that the Major League Baseball season has begun, are you aware of the curiosities and rule changes still to come?

The Major League Baseball season is underway, but perhaps you're still unpacking the many unusual things under the new collective bargaining agreement.

You've already come to terms with the designated hitter in the National League, and even though the Brewers haven't played an extra-innings game yet, surely you'll re-acquaint with the runner-starting-on-second concept, a holdover from the past two seasons, once the 10th inning begins (though that won't be the case in the playoffs).

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But there's more forthcoming, in case you haven't heard:

There will be a 'true' doubleheader at American Family Field in September

The roof was supposed to keep these from happening, wasn't it?

This won't be the first time a doubleheader will be played in the Brewers home stadium; there were three of them (seven innings per game) in the bizarre 2020 season thanks to a series of cancellations related to COVID-19.

But this will be the first time the games will run a full nine innings apiece. To make up for the San Francisco Giants series that was wiped out by the delayed start to the 2022 season (on account of the lockout), Milwaukee will play two games against the Giants on Thursday, Sept. 8, starting at 3:10 p.m.

Brewers fans will first confront the oddity of the rescheduled Giants series next week, on Monday, April 25, when the Brewers will fly home from one Pennsylvania location (Philadelphia) to play a single game against the Giants with a 5 p.m. first pitch, then fly back to Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) for the next series. Yikes.

Milwaukee's other first-week series wiped out by the delayed start, against Arizona, will get tacked on to the end of the season and run Oct. 3-5 at American Family Field. The Brewers will close the season with eight straight home games as a result.

Twelve teams make the postseason this year, but Game 163 won't happen anymore

Say "Game 163," and Brewers fans immediately think of the 2018 battle at Wrigley Field against the Cubs to win the National League Central. That stands to be the only connotation of the phrase going forward, because Game 163 isn't going to happen under the new format.

Brewers fans are probably aware that 12 teams make the playoffs now (six in each league) and the Wild Card game as we know it is dead (good riddance to memories from 2019). But if they wind up tied for the division or a final playoff spot, it's going to come down to a tiebreaking formula much like it does in the NFL, with no game to decide the winner.

After head-to-head record, tiebreaking criteria include intradivision record (that's record against your own division foes, apparently even if two teams from different divisions are vying for a spot), interdivision record, record in the last half-season of interleague games and then the last half of interleague games plus one, continuing until the tie is broken.

How does the new playoff format work, anyway?

The top-two seeds in each league essentially get first-round byes, and both must be division winners. So even in a situation last year where the Giants and Dodgers have the best two records in the National League, the Brewers still would have been the No. 2 seed by virtue of winning the Central, behind the West-champion Giants. The Dodgers would have been the No. 4 seed (first of three wild cards) and faced off with the No. 5 (second wild card) in a best-of-three series. It's the same matchup we got in the previous wild-card game format (the Dodgers beat the Cardinals), except now it's three games, all in Los Angeles.

The Braves, the division winner with the lowest record, would have also hosted a best-of-three against the lowest wild card team, which would have actually been the Cincinnati Reds. And that might have been nice for Milwaukee instead of having to face Atlanta right away.

There's no re-seeding after that. The Brewers would have faced the Braves/Reds winner (No. 2 vs. No. 3/6), and the Giants would have faced the Dodgers/Cardinals winner (No. 1 vs. No. 4/5).

Moral of the story: A top-two seed is super ideal in the new format.

Next year, the Brewers will play every American League team once

Interleague play is getting a facelift in 2023.

This year is more of a traditional schedule, with some matchups against one division of AL teams (the East) and a large chunk of the schedule populated by NL Central teams. But since everyone is rocking the DH now, there's really no reason to keep the leagues entirely separate. And starting next year, they really won't be.

Teams will play five fewer games against each division opponent next year and play one series against every team in the other league. Teams will continue to play their “rival” Interleague team four times (that's still the Twins for Milwaukee), twice at each ballpark, but their total number of games against interleague foes will rise to 46 (up from 16 this year). That's three games against every AL team — the Yankees! The Red Sox! The White Sox! — and alternating home and away each year.

Meanwhile, the Brewers will face the other four NL Central teams 14 times apiece (seven home, seven away) to account for 56 games. The other 10 teams in the National League will meet Milwaukee for six games, three in each ballpark, for the final 60 games.

There's going to be a draft lottery starting next year

The Brewers fortunately haven't had to worry a lot about possessing one of the top spots in the Major League Baseball draft in recent years, but their chances of getting the No. 1 spot for just the second time in franchise history have gone up.

Starting next year, there will be a lottery for the top six spots, similar to the NBA Draft, and every nonplayoff qualifier can take part. Teams with records that rank them 13-18 have less than a 1% chance of getting the No. 1 pick, while the three worst records have an equal shot at 16.5%.

The draft will be 20 rounds.

There are a few other more subtle changes to the format (such as no team that accepts revenue sharing being eligible for a draft pick more than two years in a row), but the most interesting wrinkle is the reintroduction of "draft and follow" players. Anyone taken after the 10th round who does not sign by the signing deadline can go to junior college to play another year and remain connected to the team that drafted them, eligible to sign before the following draft. Former Brewers pitcher Manny Parra is among the players who signed with the club under the previous iteration of this format. So the 11th round stands to be an intriguing pivot in the type of talent getting selected — a lot of high-end players who may agree to try out an extra level of seasoning at a JUCO program before signing.

Other smaller things to know

• The trade deadline is moved back this year to Aug. 2, at 5 p.m. CST. With the season extended a little deeper into October, it kind of made sense.

• Players can only be optioned to the minors five times during a season (remember: when someone says a player has an option left, that means an "option year" and a player can be sent back and forth throughout the entirety of the season). Previously, it had been unlimited, and five times is still enough where it likely won't make much of a ripple. But if a player toggles back and forth to Class AAA a couple times early in the season, it could lead to some careful roster management down the stretch.

• Likely in 2023: a pitch clock, bigger bases, a ban on "the shift." Three bigger rules are still under review, but we could see them all in 2023. The big one, of course, is restrictions on the defensive "shift," handicapping defenses from oversaturating one side of the field, thus freeing up hitters for more base hits. The bases themselves could be physically bigger next year, from 15-inch squares to 18. That's bigger than you might think, with the idea to encourage more base stealing. A clock between pitches would theoretically speed up the time of game.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: More MLB changes in rules, interleague play to come with new CBA