The New York Yankees are a very good baseball team. Major League Baseball’s outdated system is failing to reward them for that.
The Yankees have proven to be one of baseball’s premier threats once again this season, even managing to withstand a lengthy absence from captain and resident superstar Aaron Judge. Their record currently sits at 86-63, the second-best in the American League and the fifth-best in all of baseball. Yet, somehow, they’re going to be forced to play in a wild card round?
As aforementioned, the Yankees hold the American League’s second-best record. The only team better? Their divisional foe, the Tampa Bay Rays, who have defied all odds and currently sit at 90-59, leading the Yankees in the race for the American League East by 4.0 games. While the Bronx Bombers will host the Rays in what is shaping up to be a pivotal four-game set at Yankee Stadium in the final week of the season, the divisional crown looks like it is heading to Tampa. And kudos to them. But why are the Yankees being punished simply because another good team happens to be in their division?
If the season were to end today, the Yankees would be the fourth seed in the American League. With the second-best record. Should that not be paradoxical enough for you, the team with the third-best record, the Boston Red Sox, would be coming to Yankee Stadium for the Wild Card round as the fifth seed. The teams occupying the number two and three overall seeds in the American League? The 76-73 Chicago White Sox and the 75-75 Houston Astros. Yes, you read that right.
The issue is the present-day playoff format. The current MLB postseason rules allocate the first through third overall seeds of each league to the winners of their respective divisions, regardless of record. So, as we are seeing this year, mediocre teams such as the White Sox and Astros can find themselves in more favorable positions than clubs such as the Yankees and Red Sox, who have put together far better seasons.
But the Yankees and Red Sox aren’t the only teams victimized by this current format; the league-leading Rays, who will receive the number one seed and a first-round bye, will now have to await the winner of the Yankees and Red Sox, the second and third best teams in the American League. On the other side of the bracket, the White Sox stand to get the bye and receive the winner of a Wild Card series between the Astros and Guardians. The combined run differential of those three teams? Negative 26. Compare that to the combined run differential of 282 shared between the Rays, Yankees, and Red Sox, and the problem becomes crystal clear.
Simply put, the three best teams in the American League are set to duke it out in the opening two rounds on the same side of the bracket. To put it into perspective, the path to the World Series is easier for the 75-75 Astros than it is for the 90-59 Rays, 86-63 Yankees, and 82-68 Red Sox. Absolute lunacy.
A remedy to this issue could come in many different forms. The current format of six qualifying teams from each league is no issue, and the extended Wild Card series is, in my opinion, actually good for baseball. But the divisional seeding system has to change. Either restructure the divisions to be more competitive or seed the teams based on record. What we have right now simply isn’t working. Mediocrity is being rewarded, and quality is being punished merely because of circumstance.
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