Some teams are already in. Some are fighting for position. Others are still trying to get through the door as MLB’s postseason picture takes shape.
The MLB postseason is coming quick. A few teams have clinched their postseason berths. Some teams have secured their divisions. Others are just sitting in pretty good positions. But everybody is still fighting for something.
To hold on to or take a higher seed.
To win their division.
To just get in the door.
The Chase for No. 1 Seed
Milwaukee won the NL Central division championship and clinched a playoff spot, putting them at No. 1 with the top seed to hold on to.
The Dodgers are sitting pretty too, having clinched their postseason berth. Now sitting at the No. 2 seed with a 92-60 record, LA is close behind Milwaukee’s 95-57, making it a tight race for the No. 1 seed.
Trying to Steal More Than Bases
Then there are teams like Tampa Bay — 92-59, No. 1 in the AL East — just inching closer to the division crown, while also widening the gap to 4.5 games over the Yankees. For the Rays, winning the division is the necessary next step if they wanna stay at No. 1.
The Yankees may be trailing, but don’t count ’em out yet. NY made their way to a playoff spot with an 88-64 record. But the Yankees are also in a Wild Card spot, chasing Tampa Bay for the division and a chance to get off the Wild Card train and snag a better seed. Preferably the No. 1 seed currently held by Tampa Bay.
Simply put, the Rays and the Yankees are going to the same place. The Rays have a shortcut and the Yankees are trying to take it.
Now, Chicago and Toronto are a whole different story. Chicago is 77-75, sitting firmly in the third Wild Card position. But sitting firmly doesn’t mean strapped in. Just 1.5 games behind them, at 76-77, are the Toronto Blue Jays, trying to slide in the club on the White Sox’s admission ticket.
With Chicago having only 10 games left and Toronto just 9, the road to their final destination is everything but smooth.
One Wrong Move Could Crumble an Empire
One of the tighter races involves the 83-69 Padres and the 80-73 Diamondbacks. With San Diego sitting at WC3, the DBacks are only 3.5 games behind, and if “I’m tryna take your place” was a team, the DBacks would be it.
There are 19 games total left — 9 for the DBacks and 10 for San Diego — for Arizona and San Diego to collect W’s and see who gets WC3.
Depending on how the W’s fall, their head-to-head showdown could have both teams staring each other down over the barrel of a bat, giving each team a chance to ruin the other’s entire postseason.
And since WC3 is Arizona’s only way into the postseason, those 9 games just got a lot more meaningful.
The road to the playoffs has a lot of moving parts. You got teams inside the club tryna gatekeep. You got teams who can get in, they just need a way to get to the building. Then you got teams that’s just tryna be included in the reindeer games.
The one common denominator — they all just want to be No. 1.
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