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Barely a week and a half remains in the 2025 MLB regular season, and the Major League Baseball playoff picture is coming into focus. Last week, the MLB-leading Milwaukee Brewers became the first team to clinch a postseason berth and the Philadelphia Phillies quickly followed suit, then secured the NL East title a day later. The Chicago Cubs joined the 12-team postseason bracket on Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers currently sit in first place in the NL West as they look to hold off the San Diego Padres and capture another division crown. The Padres and New York Mets hold the other two National League wild card spots behind the Cubs, but the San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks are making September pushes.
Over in the American League, the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros are neck-and-neck as they fight for the AL West title. Whoever loses that battle will fall into a wild card berth, where they’ll likely join the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. The Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays lead the AL Central and East, respectively.
As a reminder, MLB now grants 12 playoff berths — a total of six to the division winners and then three wild card berths in each league. The top two division winners in each league as measured by overall record are rewarded with first-round byes, which means they won’t have to play in the best-of-three Wild Card Series that functions as that first round. The 2025 MLB postseason gets started on Tuesday, Sept. 30.
Now let’s get you caught up on the bracket, standings and more. All division and postseason projections referenced in the standings come from SportsLine.
2025 MLB playoff picture
If the season ended today…
AL byes: No. 1 Blue Jays and No. 2 Tigers
AL Wild Card Series: No. 3 Astros vs. No. 6 Red Sox
No. 4 Yankees vs. No. 5 Mariners
NL byes: No. 1 Brewers and No. 2 Phillies
NL Wild Card Series: No. 3 Dodgers vs. No. 6 Mets
No. 4 Cubs vs. No. 5 Padres
American League standings National League standings
x – clinched division
y – clinched wild card spot
z – clinched playoff berth
e – eliminated
MLB wild card standings
New York Yankees
85
67
+2.0
Seattle Mariners
83
69
—
Boston Red Sox
83
69
—
Cleveland Guardians
80
71
2.5
Texas Rangers
79
74
4.5
Kansas City Royals
76
76
7.0
Chicago Cubs – y
88
64
+10.0
San Diego Padres
83
69
+5.0
New York Mets
78
74
—
Arizona Diamondbacks
77
76
1.5
Cincinnati Reds
76
76
2.0
San Francisco Giants
76
76
2.0
St. Louis Cardinals
74
79
4.5
2025 World Series odds
(All odds via Caesars as of Sept. 18)
Los Angeles Dodgers: +475Philadelphia Phillies: +475Milwaukee Brewers: +600Toronto Blue Jays: +750Seattle Mariners: +825Detroit Tigers: +850New York Yankees: +950San Diego Padres: +1400Chicago Cubs: +1400Houston Astros: +1600New York Mets: +1800Boston Red Sox: +2200