On the morning of Aug. 23, the wild-card standings on the ESPN app presented an unusual sight: only four American League teams had winning records — the Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox, according to ESPN.
If the season had ended that day, the AL playoff field would have included a team with a sub-.500 record as the AL West winner, ESPN reported. The outlet said that pairing a 12-team playoff bracket with an expanded slate of interleague games has made that outcome all but inevitable.
The possibility of a losing team reaching the postseason is rooted in structural changes that date back decades, according to ESPN. When Major League Baseball split into divisions in 1969 and did not schedule interleague play, it was effectively impossible for a team with a losing record to qualify for the playoffs: a league composed entirely of intra-league games could only reach a perfect balance at .500, and tiebreakers would push a qualifier above that mark.
There have been rare exceptions tied to abnormal seasons, ESPN noted. The 1973 Mets came closest under the old format, finishing 82-79. The 1981 Kansas City Royals made the playoffs at 50-53 under the strike-shortened, split-season arrangement after going 30-23 in the second half. The pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign and its expanded 16-team bracket produced two sub-.500 playoff teams — the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers at 29-31.
Expansion to six divisions and the introduction of wild cards in the mid-1990s increased the theoretical chance of a losing postseason entrant, ESPN wrote. The 1994 strike interrupted a season in which the AL West was led by the Texas Rangers at 52-62. For 28 consecutive seasons in the 30-team era, both leagues fielded at least six teams with winning records, a streak ESPN said could be at risk this year. Close calls have occurred previously, including the 2005 San Diego Padres (82-80) and the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals (83-79). ESPN added that the move to a 12-team playoff in 2022 and subsequent scheduling changes further raised the likelihood of a sub-.500 playoff team.
