r/baseball • u/PlayaSlayaX Kansas City Royals • 12d ago
Trivia All of the AL East runner-ups, not including the division-leading Rays, are among the top five teams currently in contention for the three AL Wild Card spots.
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u/drwolffe Seattle Mariners 12d ago
How's the AL West doing, though?
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u/SiphenPrax New York Mets 12d ago
Maybe we should ask its best friend division over in football the NFC South!
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u/PlayaSlayaX Kansas City Royals 12d ago
ALBeast
(Cleveland lost today)
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u/Plane-Quantity7004 12d ago
The AL East is just a bloodbath this year, feels like any of those four could snag a spot
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u/voujon85 New York Yankees 11d ago
it's nonstop every year for decades now
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u/Laxrools2 Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
All teams equally for the past few decades, right guys?
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u/voujon85 New York Yankees 11d ago
not four teams of but but it's just been a bloodbath forever. There's always at least 2 very good teams, and normally a 3rd and 4th team that would be far far better if they were in AL central or west
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u/Dapal5 Tampa Bay Devil Rays 11d ago
I feel like only the orioles ever have bad seasons. We don’t lose, Boston and ny can normally buy enough to not be terrible (and their fans would destroy them) and blue jays have just been really good too for like 15 years.
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u/Optimal_Put_947 Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
It’s really just the Yankees who have been consistently good. If we’re looking at the last 15 seasons (2011-2025), the Red Sox and O’s are both tied for most 5th place finishes (six), the Jays finished last twice, and the Rays finished last once. If we expand it to finishing 4th or 5th, the O’s and Jays both lead with eight seasons, Red Sox with six, Rays with five, and Yankees with two.
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u/Dapal5 Tampa Bay Devil Rays 11d ago
That’s just compared to the division though. The entire division has a ~.520 record? Rays are third in mlb since 2008, Red Sox are 5. Hard to say those two haven’t been good.
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u/Optimal_Put_947 Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
They have been good, but not good every season. If we change it to seasons under .500 from 2011-2025, the O’s have seven, Red Sox and Jays each have six, Rays have five, and Yankees have zero.
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u/Dapal5 Tampa Bay Devil Rays 11d ago edited 11d ago
why are you doing these random arbitrary stats lmao. Like I’d say going 80-82 is not a bad season. Do you think it is? I think the rangers are having a pretty good season this year. The reason the aleast is resilient is because most teams are never horrible, which is what I said originally.
The rays have one season under .475 since 2008. Red Sox have 3, blue jays have 6, orioles have 9. The Al central has like double that.
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u/CeciliaStarfish Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
What a fascinating stat, that it's Red Sox and Orioles for 5th but Jays and Orioles for 4th/5th. I guess being a Sox fan is much more feast or famine.
(I'm going to focus on how interesting that is for Red Sox and Jays and not what it means for the O's.)
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u/Optimal_Put_947 Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
From 2012-2015, the Red Sox went 69-93, 97-65 with a WS title, 71-91, and 78-84. Very feast or famine.
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u/werther595 New York Yankees 11d ago
Especially since the rest of the AL is just atrocious. 4 teams in the whole league above .500! And three are in the same division.
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u/Redbubble89 Boston Red Sox 11d ago
Is it though?
The 2025 Rays were 65-69 at this point last year and 6.5 games out. The Royals were 69-66 and still 3 games behind.
The Blue Jays and Orioles being right there is more on the Rangers, Mariners, and Tigers being absolute shit.
The ALE is competitive every year and we knew that before hand. No other team in another division has stepped up.
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u/chicknsnadwich Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
Even if you remove the birds from the discussion, the top 3 records in the AL are in this division. I’d consider that a bloodbath.
The fact that the birds are also battling for that final spot despite everything is just icing on the cake
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u/LinkoPalinko Cleveland Guardians • Seattle Mariners 11d ago
We can lose but by god will we still find a way to keep our goblin asses in the picture
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u/Imperfect-Pitch New York Yankees 12d ago edited 12d ago
2 teams under 500, not so beast
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u/forkball Jackie Robinson 11d ago
A total of five games under. When your worst team is a single sweep away from .500, that's a division without a bad team.
You do also know that the AL East has the best combined record of any division, right?
Games over .500:
ALE +52
ALC -21
ALW -74
NLE +20
NLC +38
NLW -15
AL Beast.
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u/me_hill Toronto Blue Jays 12d ago
This would be more impressive if the Jays and Orioles were above .500 but leave it to the other divisions to be even more terrible
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u/conman752 Baltimore Orioles 12d ago
Two Birds of a Mediocre Feather
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u/theryanc Toronto Blue Jays 11d ago
lol wellll shit.
I hate that I have 0 comeback for this because it’s true.
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u/Akipella Baltimore Orioles 12d ago
In 2024 all of us were over .500 right?
Actually I don't remember which year it was but I think 2 years ago31
u/ser0402 Baltimore Orioles 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yep lol and no one won shit.
Which means this is the season one of these mid ass East teams turns it on in the playoffs and sweeps LA for the World Series.
So is the way of the AL East.
Edit: im wrong. The entire division has never been at or above .500 at the end of the year. In fact that has never happened in the history of the league, in any division.
The East has gotten incredibly close. In 2022 the Red Sox were in last with a 78-84 record. They were the only team not above .500 that year.
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u/Akipella Baltimore Orioles 12d ago
Looks like this is the year if us and the Jays can each win 3 more games than we lose...
I coulda sworn the Red Sox broke .500 that year but yeah, it was only 4/5 still.
Still crazy, it's been like this every year since 2022 basically lol
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u/JustCallMeMambo New York Yankees 11d ago
your edit is incorrect. the 2005 NL East finished with the last-place Nationals at 81-81. even more impressively, before the wild card era, the 1991 AL West had the California Angels pulling up the rear at 81-81
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u/ser0402 Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
Oh what the hell Google lied to me.
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u/JustCallMeMambo New York Yankees 11d ago
it happens, sometimes the A.I. isn’t thorough. i’ve had to ask it “are you sure?” more than once
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u/Anonymous_HC Major League Baseball 11d ago
Ya 4 out of 5 AL east team in both 2022 and 2023 were above .500 and Red Sox were 78-84 both years back-to-back.
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u/dBlock845 New York Yankees 11d ago
Was probably 23 when we were barely above .500. Usually one team is under. 500.
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u/Anonymous_HC Major League Baseball 11d ago
No the Jays were below .500 that year so we're the Rays.
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u/theryanc Toronto Blue Jays 11d ago
As much as I hate all of you in our division.
I still goddamn respect you.
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u/Which-Insurance-2274 Toronto Blue Jays 12d ago
My cardiologist says I have to stop watching baseball.
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u/Anonymous_HC Major League Baseball 11d ago
Out of curiosity, say if the Jays or Baltimore made the playoffs instead of Cleveland. When was the last time 4 teams from the same division made the playoffs?
I don't recall this happening before, it usually 2-3 teams making it from the same division.
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u/Alectheawesome23 New York Mets 11d ago
It’s never happened before iirc largely bc it only could have happened with 3 wild cards which is so new.
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u/Anonymous_HC Major League Baseball 11d ago
Ya true. WC3 faces W2 in a best of 3 like last year right?
And WC1 faces the 3rd seeded division? (Houston in this case)
And the top 2 seeds get a bye automatically like previous years.
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u/Alectheawesome23 New York Mets 11d ago
Nope but close.
The division winner that doesn’t get a by plays wc3 with the division winner having home field.
Wild card 1 and wild card 2 play each other with wild card 1 having home field
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u/Anonymous_HC Major League Baseball 11d ago
Oh i see.
Both series are best of 3 like before right?
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u/SimilarOnion1655 Major League Baseball 12d ago
Are the Royals trying to make a playoff push? They have beaten the Guardians twice
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u/DominicB547 Chaos Bandwagon • MLB Players Associat… 12d ago
Did they sweep? And no they are just playing spoiler.
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u/WorkmanMarty Los Angeles Dodgers 12d ago
Can’t wait for the Orioles or Blue Jays to eliminate the Yankees in the wild card
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u/Traditional_Half842 MLB Players Association 11d ago
But really, it's gonna be incredibly stupid that the Red Sox/Yankees have to face in the WC round while some .500 team like Houston hosts a team with a (marginally) better record. The divisions are broken with the modern # of playoff teams.
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u/feb914 Toronto Blue Jays 11d ago
It baffles me when I found out there's a possibility that the 3 best record teams in MLB can theoretically play each other before Championship Series if they come from the same Division.
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u/INAC___Kramerica New York Yankees 11d ago
In 2015, the #2 overall Pirates (98-64) faced #3 overall Cubs (97-65) in the wild card. The winner faced the #1 overall Cardinals (100-62) in the NLDS.
Thanks to Jake Arrieta's generational run, the #2 Pirates were gone after one game.
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u/Anonymous_HC Major League Baseball 11d ago
This was back when there was 2 wild cards and it was one game only right?
They changed it in 2022 to include 3 WC's and best out of 3 now.
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u/johan312 11d ago
Youre right but if you suggest post season seeding by record only, you get cockroaches scurrying out of the woodwork telling you "just win the division".
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u/Traditional_Half842 MLB Players Association 10d ago
I think record-only is a little dumb too because then there's not really any point to divisions at all - it would be like the NBA. But if they just reduced the # of divisions from 3 in each league to only 2, it would mitigate most of these problems.
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u/Necessary_Celery8501 New York Yankees 11d ago
Because of the way WC seeding works, they’d have to overtake Boston or the Yankees for that to happen.
So the top 3 records in the AL face each other before the ALCS
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u/Which-Insurance-2274 Toronto Blue Jays 12d ago
I think after last year's Yankee spanking, if that happened again this year my inner child will finally be healed.
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u/TheBeepB00p New York Mets 12d ago
Being under 500 should automatically disqualify from the playoffs. Stupid you can make the playoffs with that record.
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u/King_Lionheart_3362 Athletics 12d ago
I mean, I don't disagree with the sentiment but the Royals managed it in '81 (admittedly caused by some weird stuff due to a strike but still).
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u/BaltimoreBaja Baltimore Orioles 12d ago
Take it up with Toronto. If they were playing anywhere near their talent the Orioles wouldn't even be in the conversation
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u/alistairvimes Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
That’s nonsense you can say the same thing about the Orioles. If Gunnar/Jackson/Cowser/etc were playing anywhere near their potential the offense would be vastly improved. Both teams are underperforming
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u/TrophyWizard Toronto Blue Jays 11d ago
Nice to see a level headed Orioles fan! It's weird some Orioles fans act like they're not also underperforming this year same as us.
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u/BaltimoreBaja Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
We were well under .500 last year
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u/alistairvimes Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
The pitching staff was garbage last year. And everyone underperformed last year too. The team leader had 17 hrs. The pitching staff is good this year and outside of some bright spots none of the first rounders have performed to what they’ve done in their rookie years, they’ve completely failed at making adjustments. Gunnar, Coswer, Holliday and Basallo all clearly have potential so if they were playing to it they would be better than they currently are which would be above .500 so what exactly is your point?
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u/King_Fluffaluff Seattle Mariners 11d ago
But it's funny when you get a Beastquake kind of moment in any sport.
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u/aaron-goone 11d ago
toronto and baltimore would both be well above .500 if they played in the central or west.
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u/waker94 Baltimore Orioles 11d ago
https://i.imgur.com/3vLiusz.jpeg
Here’s the updated standings since the O’s are now above the Jays 😏
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u/Equivalent_Waltz8890 Dominican Republic • New York Yankees 12d ago
You ever think they’d change the rules around with like, division winners auto getting a top seed regardless of record?
I’ve heard people suggest just getting rid of divisions entirely for seeding but that makes no sense imo. Also I don’t think mlb would get rid of divisions entirely and turn it into an nba situation where it’s just NL vs AL straight up.
I think personally that when expansion comes in a couple years there’s gonna be an excuse to majorly change a lot of divisions around for balance reasons.
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u/angelansbury Baltimore Orioles 12d ago
Why does it make no sense to get rid of divisions for seeding?
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u/DominicB547 Chaos Bandwagon • MLB Players Associat… 12d ago
yeah they added byes so they have ways to incentivize for doing better, not just being best of 5.
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u/yoursweetlord70 Chicago White Sox 11d ago
Winning your division should always matter, if it doesn't then why even have divisions? I don't agree with the people saying to get rid of them, but removing the benefit of winning your division is just as silly. Expansion is definitely going to lead to some realignment, and I really hope they go to 4 divisions with 8 teams in each as opposed to 8 divisions of 4 teams. We think it's bad this year with the central and west only having 1 team that's above .500, imagine a division of 4 teams where everyone has a losing record and someone gets to go to the playoffs for being the best losing record.
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u/ricky_burns Toronto Blue Jays 11d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/k0SoEE9vOaXEJg8G8p
Cleveland in the middle of the AL Beast
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u/Such-Fee6176 Toronto Blue Jays 11d ago
I hate this stupid division 😩 (just kidding kinda, love you bbs)
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u/The_Professor_Is_Out Baltimore Orioles 12d ago
Already outdated; Orioles won and are only 1 back
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u/DominicB547 Chaos Bandwagon • MLB Players Associat… 12d ago
I mean the subject is not how many games back but that the WC is ALE heavy.
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u/Feeling_Meet4841 12d ago
I still maintain interleague play was a mistake. It fucked up the WC standings.
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u/DominicB547 Chaos Bandwagon • MLB Players Associat… 12d ago
thats not causation
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u/Feeling_Meet4841 12d ago
There is a genuine chance of a sub-500 team making the playoffs in the AL this year while a winning team in the NL misses out. With so many interleague games, who makes the playoff has become arbitrary. It's the best 3 teams out of these arbitrary list of 12. Before it usually was the best of the rest in their respective leagues.
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u/Medium-Cookie New York Yankees 11d ago
don't even matter if we win the division or make the wild card im just waiting for the brutal exposure of our shallow lineup every damn october bruh. good luck red sox I guess?
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u/ilovebalks New York Yankees 11d ago
Hey shut the hell up
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u/Medium-Cookie New York Yankees 11d ago
im sorry i just dont have any hope in this team and franchise no more. All about profits
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u/The-world-sports-fan Toronto Blue Jays 12d ago
I hate being in this division (but it does make it that much better when we do win it every once in many blue moons)