Fueled by slugging catcher Cal Raleigh, the Seattle Mariners are making a serious bid for their first pennant. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
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With less than four weeks left in the 2025 baseball season, races for playoff berths – and a possible path to the World Series – are tightening.
There’s gold at the end of that rainbow, with this year’s pot likely to exceed the overall postseason pool of $129.1 million produced last fall.
Full shares for the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers were $447,440.70 each, while the vanquished New York Yankees awarded shares of $354,571.67 per player.
First Flag In Sight
With their eyes on the prize, the Seattle Mariners are focused on winning their first pennant. That means erasing the 3½ – game deficit separating them from the front-running Houston Astros in the American League West or fending off four challengers for the final wild-card spot.
As play started this weekend, the Yankees and Red Sox held the top two wild-card berths and the Mariners were third – but just a handful of games ahead of the Rangers (1½ behind), Royals and Rays (both 2 ½ back), and Guardians (trailing by 3).
All have had roller-coaster rides in the standings since the All-Star break in mid-July, with Seattle even managing to tie Houston for the AL West division lead as recently as Aug. 13. But the Mariners, the only team never to reach the World Series, has had rough sledding since.
Both Boston and New York have hopes of catching Toronto and winning the American League East as the three teams were only 3½ games apart on Friday morning.
Hefty Payroll
At $294 million, the Yankees pay their players more than any American League team, according to Roster Resource, but payroll is less of a factor in September than who gets hot, who gets hurt, or who plays like an All-Star when the pressure is greatest.
The same situation prevails in the Senior Circuit.
Flame-throwing closer Mason Miller was the top prize landed by the San Diego Padres during their trade deadline frenzy. (AP Photo/Orlando Ramirez)
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The closest division duel has its epicenter in Southern California, where both the Los Angeles Dodgers and second-place San Diego Padres stumbled into September. At the moment, the Dodgers hold a two-game lead, with the Padres poised for a wild-card spot.
But San Diego holds only a one-game lead over the New York Mets for the second wild-card spot, with the surging San Francisco Giants four games behind New York and Cincinnati Reds trailing by five. Only the Chicago Cubs, second in the National League Central, seem to be on a steady playoff course. They hold the NL’s top wild-card position.
Critical Series
Cincinnati, in the first year of Terry Francona’s managerial comeback, opens a home series against the Mets tonight, then moves on to San Diego for three more critical games. New York is banking on its rookie pitcher troika of Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, and Brandon Sproat, who makes his long-awaited debut at Great American Ballpark tonight.
Although Juan Soto’s 15-year, $765 million pact is the largest and longest in baseball history, New York’s $339 million payroll ranks second in the majors to the $394 million the Dodgers pay their players, according to Roster Resource.
Each league will send six teams into the playoffs – the three division winners and three wild-cards chosen from among non-championship clubs with the best winning percentages.
Since the 1995 advent of the wild-card, the postseason format has changed a half-dozen times, growing from one wild-card (the second-place team with the best record), to two 2012, and three in 2022, when the single Wild Card Game was dumped in favor of a best-of-three Wild Card Series.
For one year only, owners imposed a tournament that involved 16 teams – more than half of the 30 clubs. It involved three division champions, three second-place teams, and the two other clubs with the best records.
A 10-team postseason was used in 2021 before MLB expanded the playoffs to an even dozen a year later.
Wild-card teams have reached the World Series 16 times and won it eight times. The wild-card world champions were the 1997 and 2003 Marlins plus the 2002 Angels, 2004 Red Sox, 2011 Cardinals, 2014 Giants, 2019 Nationals, and 2023 Rangers.
In three different seasons (2002, 2014, and 2023), wild-cards from both leagues advanced to the same World Series, prompting critics to condemn the system for depriving the Fall Classic of a regular-season champion.