We've now got just a week and a half left in the 2025 regular season. Contenders are running out of runway to make their final playoff pushes, and the postseason picture is coming into focus with each passing day. While some things could change between now and next Sunday, Sept. 28, we have a pretty good idea of what the first-round matchups might look like in both the American and National Leagues.
So, of the available options, which ones do we want to see the most? There are 12 total options, six in each league among the eight teams that would find themselves in the Wild Card round if the season ended tomorrow. We've ranked all 12 below in order of just how compelling we find them, both on the field and off.
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12. Seattle Mariners-Boston Red Sox
No disrespect to either of these teams intended; it's a sign of just how loaded (and just how wide-open) this year's potential postseason field is that the lowest-ranked matchup on this list still features so many great players and compelling storylines. There's just not a ton of history here, nor a lot of shared animosity, to spice things up. Garrett Crochet against [insert any of the Mariners' many aces here] in Game 1 sounds like a hell of a time, though.
11. Chicago Cubs-San Diego Padres
Again, I certainly wouldn't be complaining if this were one of the NL Wild Card series we actually got. There would be so much urgency here, on both sides — the Padres having gone all the way in at the trade deadline, the Cubs staring down the possibility of losing Kyle Tucker in free agency — that a best-of-three showdown would be fraught with tension from the first pitch of Game 1. Plus, there's star power up and down both of these lineups. It's more a testament to the matchups still to come that this checks in at No. 11, largely because of a lack of shared history (you know, other than 1984).
10. San Diego Padres-New York Mets
These teams met in this very round back in 2022, in which San Diego came into Citi Field and broke Mets fans' hearts in the decisive Game 3. A lot has changed since then, of course — for starters, Juan Soto is in New York now, and him squaring off against his old team is just one of many reasons this would be a juicy matchup.
Again, both of these teams would be under immense pressure to avoid a first-round exit, and both teams have enough talent to make a run and enough obvious flaws to convince yourself that an early crash-out is on the table.
9. New York Yankees-Houston Astros
Make no mistake: These teams still really, really hate each other, not just the clubhouse but up into the front office and the owner's box as well. The Yankees still blame Houston for stealing the 2017 World Series, while the Astros are convinced that New York was the driving force behind the sign-stealing scandal that rocked the organization.
If we're honest, though, this rivalry doesn't have quite as much juice as it did a few years ago, both because many of the primary players have moved on and because the sands have shifted a bit in the AL of late. If these teams were still atop the league, it would be a bit higher on this list; the fact that both have been a bit wobbly of late knocks it down a notch or two, although the atmospheres would still be electric.
8. Chicago Cubs-New York Mets
There's history here that dates back decades, from the black cat that cursed Fergie Jenkins and the Cubs in 1969 to New York's sweep in the 2015 NLCS — still the only postseason meeting between two of baseball's biggest franchises. (Shouts out to 2015 Daniel Murphy's all-time playoff heater.)
Flash forward a decade, and this would be an absolute box-office matchup, two teams that at least on paper have the talent necessary to go on a deep run into October. Of course, they also have the ability to flame out in the Wild Card round, and the loser here would head into a winter of angst and uncertainty that would almost certainly lead to big changes. The fan bases alone make this a juicy pairing, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
7. Boston Red Sox-Houston Astros
Alex Bregman and Alex Cora squaring off against their old team? Roman Anthony's (potential) playoff debut? Garrett Crochet against Hunter Brown in Game 1? This might not be the most compelling matchup strictly from a baseball perspective, but the narratives here write themselves — and you know there's nothing Houston would like more than to convince Bregman that he made the wrong choice when he bolted for Boston last winter. Plus, it seems like every time these two teams have met in the postseason of late has produced an absolute classic.
6. Seattle Mariners-Houston Astros
Now we're getting to the really good stuff. To say that there's no love lost between these AL West foes would be the understatement of the century, especially as they've done battle for divisional supremacy over the last few years. The fact that the Astros spoiled Seattle's long-awaited return to the postseason back in 2022 just adds more fuel to the fire.
This one ranks just outside the top five because I'm not totally sold on the viability of the very banged-up Astros, but you can never count out this team's veteran devil magic, especially if Yordan Alvarez is able to come back healthy by October. Plus, the sheer hate involved here makes up for a lot.
5. Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs
It's one of the most iconic matchups the National League has to offer, two of its most marquee franchises squaring off in a series that neither of them thought they'd have to deal with. In one corner: the dream-team Dodgers, who are leaking oil (particularly in the bullpen) as we head to October but still have Shohei Ohtani leading arguably the most loaded roster in the sport. In the other: the Cubs, who appeared to be cruising toward an NL Central title only to watch the Brewers eat their lunch over the dog days of summer.
These are two passionate, demanding fan bases, and the pressure at Wrigley Field or Chavez Ravine for a best-of-three series could power an entire city's energy grid. The fact that this would also include quite possibly the two deepest lineups in baseball is just the cherry on top. (Plus, it's an all-time helmet game if ever there were one.)
4. New York Yankees-Seattle Mariners
Start with the history here: These teams have disliked each other for 30 years now, dating from the Mariners' instantly iconic walk-off win in Game 5 of the 1995 ALDS. New York could get its revenge and then some for the rest of the decade, foiling both the 2000 and the 2001 Mariners — the latter of which won a record 116 games during the regular season — in the ALCS.
Those scars run deep, as either fan base will tell you. Add to that backdrop the war for AL MVP being raged between Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge and Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh — a war that's had fans going at it online for months now — and you've got yourself one heck of a stew going. The two best individual players in the league leading two of the most talented teams in the league into a best-of-three? Sign us up.
3. Los Angeles Dodgers-New York Mets
These teams met in the NLCS just last year, the fourth time they've squared off in the postseason. New York vs. L.A. sells itself, as does Juan Soto taking on Shohei Ohtani for the second consecutive season. These are the two biggest payrolls in the sport, and teams that entered spring training with World Series-or-bust expectations. Meeting in a best-of-three Wild Card series would have to be viewed as a disappointment, and the resulting anxiety would have the intensity of this matchup off the charts. Just in terms of sheer vibes, this might come closest to feeling like a World Series in early October, and the only reason it doesn't take the top spot is because two of the game's great rivalries get in the way.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers-San Diego Padres
By sheer animosity, Dodgers-Padres might be the single best rivalry in baseball right now. These teams hate each other, on the field, in a way that you hardly ever see. Seriously: Just about every time they meet, something wild is bound to happen, even if that meeting takes place in a random series in June. Can Fernando Tatis Jr. and Co. get over the hump after falling just short last season? Will Los Angeles send their rival down I-5 to an offseason full of uncertainty? If we were ranking these by how confident we were that benches would clear at some point, this series would be No. 1 with a bullet, and the stars and stakes involved only add to the intrigue.
1. New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox
And yet, despite all of that, we just can't bring ourselves to quit Yankees-Red Sox. You'd be forgiven for having largely written this rivalry off over the last few years, in which the teams were rarely good at the same time and the bite seemed to have been lost from what was not that long ago a genuinely vicious antagonism. Now, though? We are so, so back.
Maybe it's because both of these teams are undergoing something of a youth movement right now, with Roman Anthony spearheading a loaded Red Sox farm system while New York has enjoyed breakout seasons from youngsters like Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler. Or maybe it's just that a new generation needed to build some rivalry memories of their own. Whatever the case, it feels like the dawning of a new age of Boston against New York, and the winner here would take home ultimate bragging rights. (Plus, whatever Judge does in this series would be endless grist for the narrative mill.)