With just one month to go, the MLB regular season is winding down. There might not be many regular season games left, but that reality means that postseason races are heating up. The AL Wild Card race is one to watch in particular, with so many teams still fighting for that third spot.
The winner of that third spot could ultimately be the one that plays the best the rest of the way. The team most likely to play the best in September could wind up being the team that's played the best since the trade deadline. With that in mind, let's take a look at how the Wild Card teams have performed since August 3.
AL Wild Card standings
Team | Record | Games Back |
|---|---|---|
New York Yankees | 74-57 | +8.0 |
Boston Red Sox | 73-59 | +6.5 |
Cleveland Guardians | 67-66 | - |
Texas Rangers | 66-67 | 1.0 |
Baltimore Orioles | 64-68 | 2.5 |
Minnesota Twins | 64-69 | 3.0 |
Toronto Blue Jays | 64-69 | 3.0 |
Seattle Mariners | 64-69 | 3.0 |
Detroit Tigers | 62-70 | 4.5 |
The Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels and the Athletics are all technically alive, but they're all at least 8.0 games back, putting their postseason odds at slim to none. While the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox are sitting pretty, there're seven teams duking it out for one spot, all within 4.5 games of each other. Five of those teams are within less than 3.0 games of each other.
Again, a race this tight could come down to who is the hottest. Let's take a look at how each of the teams in the race has played since the deadline.
AL Wild Card standings based on record since the trade deadline
Team | Record since Aug. 3 |
|---|---|
Boston Red Sox | 13-8 |
New York Yankees | 11-8 |
Toronto Blue Jays | 12-9 |
Cleveland Guardians | 10-10 |
Baltimore Orioles | 10-10 |
Minnesota Twins | 9-11 |
Seattle Mariners | 9-11 |
Houston Astros | 8-11 |
Detroit Tigers | 8-12 |
Only three of the nine teams in the AL Wild Card race have a winning record since the deadline, which feels fitting since the Cleveland Guardians, owners of that third Wild Card spot right now, needed a comeback win against the Angels to get to .500 on the dot. Two of those teams being the ones who are sitting comfortably in postseason positioning in New York and Boston is, again, fitting. Let's talk about the other team, though.
Things are far from perfect with the Toronto Blue Jays - they're still tied for dead last in the majors in runs scored, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is still trying to find his swing, and they just added Shane Bieber to a lengthy list of players on the Injured List. Still, not only have the Jays played well since trading veterans like Kevin Gausman and Daulton Varsho for prospects, but they're not scheduled to face a single winning team the rest of the way as of this writing. They're only 2.0 games back, so if they continue to play well, why can't they get in? And once you get in, a run is entirely possible, especially with how weak the AL is.
The team the Jays traded Varsho to, the Houston Astros, just wrapped up a 3-6 homestand against the Mariners, Angels and Athletics, and they've struggled mightily since the deadline. They wound up parting with GM Dana Brown right after that homestand. Part of the reason why is that Varsho is hitting just .169 with a .532 OPS as an Astro. He isn't the only one to blame (Yordan Alvarez has only one home run in August, for example), but Houston needs to turn things around, and quickly.
A selling team that has not been quite as fortunate as the Blue Jays is the Detroit Tigers, who have gone just 7-12 since the deadline and enter Monday's action on a six-game losing streak, having lost nine of their last 10. The odds were obviously stacked against them after trading Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize for prospects, but the Tigers immediately won six of nine before their rough patch, making their current skid that much more frustrating. This team certainly has enough talent to hang around the race even without Skubal and Mize, so it'll be interesting to see if the Tigers can bounce back again.
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