Octavia Liku / Staff Artist
The World Series ended more than a week ago, so it seems about time to make some way-too-early playoff predictions for the 2026 season, right? Baseball can be an extremely difficult sport to predict, as teams’ records can change drastically from year to year, but this is just for fun, right? Who cares if it’s at all accurate?
American League East
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays
New York Yankees
Baltimore Orioles
Tampa Bay Rays
American League Central
Cleveland Guardians
Kansas City Royals
Detroit Tigers
Minnesota Twins
Chicago White Sox
American League West
Seattle Mariners
(Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas) Athletics
Houston Astros
Texas Rangers
Los Angeles Angels
National League East
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
Washington Nationals
National League Central
Milwaukee Brewers
Cincinnati Reds
Chicago Cubs
Pittsburgh Pirates
Saint Louis Cardinals
National League West
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
In baseball, the winners of each division make the playoffs, as well as the three teams with the next best record in each league. I see the playoffs ending up with the following seeding:
American League
Boston Red Sox (Bye)
Seattle Mariners (Bye)
Cleaveland Guardians
Toronto Blue Jays
Kansas City Royals
New York Yankees
National League
New York Mets (Bye)
San Diego Padres (Bye)
Milwaukee Brewers
Los Angeles Dodgers
Philadelphia Phillies
San Francisco Giants
Now let’s take a look at the playoff match-ups and predict who will win each one:
Wild Card Round
Cleveland Guardians vs. New York Yankees? The Yankees win.
Toronto Blue Jays vs. Kansas City Royals? The Royals win.
Milwaukee Brewers vs. San Francisco Giants? The Brewers win.
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Phillies? The Phillies win.
Division Series
Boston Red Sox vs. Kansas City Royals? The Royals win.
Seattle Mariners vs. New York Yankees? The Mariners win.
New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies? The Phillies win.
San Diego Padres vs. Milwaukee Brewers? The Padres win.
Championship Series
Seattle Mariners vs. Kansas City Royals? The Mariners win.
San Diego Padres vs. Philadelphia Phillies? The Padres win.
World Series
San Diego Padres vs. Seattle Mariners? The Padres win.
There you have it. After a long offseason, regular season, and postseason, I predict that the winner of the 2026 World Series over a year away will be the San Diego Padres.
All of these predictions are based on many unknown factors that, like the Tigers trading Tarik Skubal to the Mets, or the Red Sox getting Roman Anthony to be the star we know he can be while resigning Alex Bregman, or the Guardians signing slugger Munetaka Murakami from the NPB (Japan’s Professional Baseball League). Any of these things might happen, but they also might not; that’s why these are really just shots in the dark. We never have any idea what could happen between now and the 2026 World Series, and that is the best part about the art that is the sport of baseball.