Twelve teams make the MLB playoffs, six from each league: the three division winners and three wild cards. The two best division winners in each league skip the first round, the other eight teams play a best of three Wild Card Series, and the survivors move through the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series. This format has been in place since 2022, and the 2026 postseason begins Tuesday, September 29.
How Teams Qualify and Are Seeded
Each league has three divisions, East, Central and West, and every team plays 162 games. The three division winners in each league qualify automatically, along with the three non division winners with the best records, the wild cards.
Seeding works in two tiers. The division winners take seeds 1 through 3, ordered by record, and the two with the best records get byes into the Division Series. The wild cards take seeds 4 through 6, also ordered by record. That means a wild card team with a better record than a division winner is still seeded below it.
The Four Rounds
In the Wild Card Series, the No. 3 seed plays No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5. There is no reseeding afterward: the No. 1 seed plays the winner of the 4 vs. 5 series, and the No. 2 seed plays the winner of 3 vs. 6.
The 2026 Playoff Field
Ten of the 12 spots were set entering the final day of the regular season, Sunday, September 27. Two races were decided that day: the AL West, where Houston and Texas entered tied, and the last NL wild card, between Philadelphia and Arizona.
| Seed | American League | National League |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (bye) | Tampa Bay Rays | Milwaukee Brewers |
| 2 (bye) | Cleveland Guardians | Los Angeles Dodgers |
| 3 | AL West champion, Astros or Rangers | Atlanta Braves |
| 4 | New York Yankees | San Diego Padres |
| 5 | Boston Red Sox | Chicago Cubs |
| 6 | Chicago White Sox | Philadelphia Phillies or Arizona Diamondbacks |
Two Wild Card Series were set before the final day: Red Sox at Yankees and Cubs at Padres. The White Sox visit the AL West champion and the last NL wild card visits Atlanta. The Division Series begins Saturday, October 3. Every date is on our Wild Card Series schedule, and the live bracket is on the MLB playoff bracket page.
How Ties Are Broken
MLB no longer plays tiebreaker games. Game 163, the one game playoff used when teams finished tied for a playoff spot, was eliminated with the 12 team format in 2022. Ties are now broken on paper, first by head to head record between the tied teams, then by record within the division, with further criteria after that. This year’s AL West shows how much that matters: Houston won the season series with Texas 9 to 4, so the Astros held the tiebreaker going into the final day.
Home Field Advantage
The higher seed has home field in every round through the League Championship Series. In the World Series, home field goes to the pennant winner with the better regular season record, regardless of seed. The All Star Game no longer decides it, as it did from 2003 to 2016.
Why the Bye Matters
The top two seeds in each league rest for several days while the Wild Card Series is played, which lets them line up their best starting pitchers for the Division Series. Critics point out that the layoff can also cost a team its rhythm, and several top seeds have lost in the Division Series since the format began. Either way, the bye guarantees a spot in the final eight.
Notable Postseason Moments
Don Larsen of the New York Yankees threw the only perfect game in World Series history in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
In Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, the Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson, barely able to walk because of injuries to both legs, hit a pinch hit, two run, walk off home run against Dennis Eckersley.
In the 2004 ALCS, the Boston Red Sox became the first team in MLB history to come back from down 3 games to 0 in a best of seven series, beating the Yankees in four straight. They then swept St. Louis in the World Series to win their first title in 86 years.
In 2016 the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years, beating Cleveland in extra innings of Game 7 to end the longest championship drought in North American professional sports.
More on the 2026 Playoffs
How the MLB wild card works · MLB playoff picture · Clinch scenarios · Baseball Game 7
For official bracket updates, see MLB.com’s postseason page, and for every past series result, Baseball Reference’s postseason archive.