Twelve of the 30 teams reach the postseason. That’s six from each league (American League and National League) – the three division winners in each league (East, Central and West) and three Wild Card teams from each league. They play a bracket-style postseason to ultimately determine a World Series champion.
MLB will implement a 12-team playoff bracket, featuring six teams from each league, rather than last year’s format with 10 teams (five from each league). Each side of the bracket will have three division winners and three wild-card teams.
Six teams each from the American League and National League will make the postseason field — the three division winners in each league and three additional wild-card teams in each league with the next best records.
The top two division winners in each league will receive byes to the Division Series. The other four teams in each league will play best-of-three series in the Wild Card round, with the higher seed hosting all three games.
The Division Series will be best of five. The Championship Series and World Series will be best of seven, with the team holding the higher seed wielding home-field advantage by hosting Games 1, 2, 6 and 7. There won’t be any Game 163 tiebreakers.
The winners of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) and the National League Championship Series (NLCS) play each other in the best-of-seven World Series. The current system allows for up to 53 postseason games and at least 32 games.
MLB now will give us four, best-of-three wild-card series that will start on Oct. 7. Every game in each series will be played at the site of the better seed: the division winners with the worst overall record in each league, along with the wild card teams with the best record in each league.
The lowest-seeded division winner and three wild card teams in each league play in a best-of-three series after the end of the regular season. The winners of each league’s wild card rounds advance to face the top two division winners in that league’s Division Series.
Less than one week remains in the 2022 MLB regular season and next Friday the postseason will begin with the best-of-three Wild Card Series.
Both the National and American Leagues each give six playoff slots: winners of each division (the East, Central and West) and three wild card spots. The teams are seeded as follows: Number one overall seed is awarded to the division winner with the best overall record.
The Blue Jays punched their ticket. With the Orioles falling to the Red Sox on Thursday, Toronto clinched a spot in the 2022 Major League Baseball postseason. They’ll be one of three Wild Card teams in the American League, though seeding and home-field advantage are still up for grabs with six games to play.
TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are headed to the postseason, clinching an American League Wild Card spot Thursday without even picking up a baseball.
The four wild-card round participants in each league comprise the division winner with the worst record among division winners and the three non-division winners with the best records. That division winner is automatically the No. 3 seed regardless of whether one or all of the other wild-card teams has a better record.
WILD CARD
colspan=“2”>WILD CARD | W-L |
---|---|
1 | Mariners X |
1 | Rays X |
4 | Orioles |
5 | White Sox |
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—The Tampa Bay Rays have clinched a berth in Major League Baseball’s postseason for a fourth consecutive season, extending the longest such streak in franchise history.
The Mets clinched a playoff spot last week with a Monday night win against the Brewers. It’ll be the team’s first trip to the postseason since earning a Wild Card berth in 2016—they were eventually eliminated by the Giants in the one-game Wild Card.
Are there any other changes to the postseason? No. The League Championship Series and World Series rounds remain best-of-seven in a 2-3-2 format, with regard to home-field advantage.
The first team that gets two wins advances. After that, the playoffs will be business as usual. The division series will be best-of-five, while the league championship series and World Series will be best-of-seven.
The playoffs use a best-of-seven elimination format. This means two teams play each other up to seven times, with the team that wins four games progressing to the next round.
The new, 12-team playoff format
The postseason field grows from 10 teams to 12 teams with the addition of an extra wild-card entrant in each league. The Wild Card Game has been replaced by the best-of-three Wild Card Series, which functions as the first round of play.
How many teams in each league make the MLB playoffs? Six teams from each league qualify for the postseason, three division winners and three Wild Card winners. The top two seeds in each league receive first-round byes to advance to the Division Series.
The World Series pits the champion of the American League against the champion of the National League to determine an overall winner. Each league is divided into three divisions each – West, Central and East. The team with the best record in each division gets an automatic playoff berth.
The postseason starts on October 7, two days after the end of the regular season. The winners of the Wild Card series would then face the top two seeds from each league in the DS (i.e. the 1 seed will face the 4/5 winner and the 2 seed will face the 3/6 winner).
The playoff format now includes four division winners and two wild-card teams from each conference. The Wild Card games that kick off the post-season play feature two division winners hosting wild-card teams.