MLB 2025 Season Finale: Playoffs, Records, and the Final Fight

We’ve reached the final weekend of the 2025 MLB regular season! A campaign full of emotions, especially for fans of the Milwaukee Brewers, the Seattle Mariners, and the Cleveland Guardians. On the other hand, the situation is different for the fans of the Detroit Tigers and the New York Mets. This weekend, a lot is at stake. From teams looking to end the season with dignity to those fighting for a place in the postseason, here are the most important stories to follow.

Battle in the American League Central

Miraculous comeback or historic collapse? The American League Central Division seemed defined, but the reality is different. The Detroit Tigers broke their eight-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday. However, the Guardians have won 17 of their last 20 games, while the Tigers have lost 11 of 13. Now, both teams are tied for the division lead, but Cleveland has the tiebreaker advantage having won the season series.

The Guardians host the Rangers, while the Tigers visit Boston. The Detroit-Boston series will have a playoff atmosphere, as the Red Sox have not yet clinched a wild card. The Tigers have a backup option: they are one game ahead of the Houston Astros, who snapped a five-game losing streak on Thursday, and just one game behind the Red Sox. Detroit holds the tiebreaker over Houston, so the Astros will have to finish with a better record to claim the last wild card and avoid missing their first postseason since 2016. The Astros finish in Anaheim, but will not have their two best pitchers, Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez, who started the last two games of the series against the Athletics. An important note for the Tigers: Tarik Skubal last pitched on Tuesday, so he would be ready to pitch on Sunday with four days of rest, if needed. If the Tigers have already clinched the wild card (or the division title) by then, they will likely avoid having Skubal pitch and have him ready to start Game 1 of the wild card series on Tuesday. To further complicate matters: the Red Sox, Guardians, Tigers, and Astros could end up with an 88-74 record. This scenario would occur if the Tigers win two of three against the Red Sox, the Guardians win two of three against Texas, and the Astros sweep the Angels. If this happens, the Astros would be out, as they lost the season series against the other three teams and have the worst winning percentage against the other three clubs.

Who gets the last wild card in the National League?

On September 1st, the Mets had a 94.5% chance of making the playoffs. However, after an 11-17 record in August, they have performed 9-13 in September. The Mets’ collapse might not be as disastrous as Detroit’s, but the Tigers also don’t have a $340 million payroll. The Mets’ second-half struggles have allowed the Cincinnati Reds and the Arizona Diamondbacks to stay alive. The Mets beat the Cubs on Thursday and the Reds beat the Pirates, thanks to Noelvi Marte’s home run steal in the ninth inning to secure the 2-1 victory. The Mets enter Friday with an 82-77 record, the Reds with 81-78, and the Diamondbacks with 80-79. The schedule and probable starters for each team are:

• Mets vs. Marlins: Brandon Sproat, Clay Holmes/Sean Manaea, David Peterson.
• Reds vs. Brewers: Zack Littell, Andrew Abbott, Brady Singer.
• Diamondbacks vs. Padres: Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt.

The Mets have not officially announced their starters for Saturday and Sunday. Holmes and Manaea have been alternating starts lately, while Peterson would be in line to pitch on Sunday, although he has struggled with an ERA of 12.54 in his last five starts. The Marlins pushed Sandy Alcantara back a day to start the first game of the series on Friday. Hunter Greene started on Wednesday, so he is in line to start the first playoff game if the Reds qualify. Quinn Priester is scheduled to start for the Brewers on Friday and, attention, they have won 17 consecutive games he has started. Gallen had a shaky start to the season, but he is 6-2 with an ERA of 2.82 since the beginning of August. The Padres’ bet will be determined by whether the National League West is still in play. Finally, there is a high probability that the tiebreaker will come into play. The Diamondbacks are familiar with this after tying with the Mets and the Atlanta Braves last season for the last two wild card spots, only to be eliminated by the tiebreaker rule. Scenarios for this year:

• Reds over Mets (won the season series 4-2).
• Reds over Diamondbacks (won the season series 4-2).
• Mets/Diamondbacks: To be determined. They split the season series and the second tiebreaker is the record within the division, with the Mets currently 24-24 and the Diamondbacks 25-23. The third tiebreaker is the record within the league and the Mets are 58-53 and the Diamondbacks are 55-56.

Who wins the American League?

The Toronto Blue Jays were five games ahead on September 16, but they have had a 2-6 record, while the New York Yankees have had a 6-1 record. The two teams are tied. Toronto has the tiebreaker, having won the season series 8-5. The Yankees host the Baltimore Orioles to finish, while the Blue Jays host the Tampa Bay Rays. Scheduled starters:

• Guardians: Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman.
• Yankees: To be determined, Cam Schlittler, Luis Gil.

The Yankees started Max Fried on Wednesday and Carlos Rodon on Thursday, with the intention of starting them in the first two games of the wild card series, so they will not be in action this weekend. Will Warren is the likely starter for Friday. The interesting name here is Yesavage, who has made only two starts in his career (allowing five runs in nine innings) after recently being called up from the minors, where he recorded an ERA of 3.12 with 160 strikeouts in just 98 innings. The Blue Jays have already moved José Berríos to the bullpen, so it’s possible that Yesavage will be part of the postseason rotation along with Gausman and Bieber, with Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt as other possibilities. Another factor at play: if Gausman, who has been Toronto’s best starter in the second half with an ERA of 2.49, is needed on Sunday to secure the division title, that would leave him out of the wild card series if the Blue Jays finish second in the division. The top seed in the American League is still up for grabs, with the Seattle Mariners, who are in excellent form, one game behind the Yankees and Blue Jays. The Mariners lose the tiebreaker against both teams, so they would have to finish with the best record to secure the top seed. The Mariners host the Los Angeles Dodgers to end the season.

Can Cal Raleigh Catch Aaron Judge?

Raleigh’s improbable season continues, and after hitting home runs number 59 and 60 in the Mariners’ Wednesday victory to secure the American League West Division title, he is two away from tying Judge’s American League record of 62. Of course, “reach” has another meaning here: Can Raleigh reach Judge in the MVP race? Maybe he already has, as voters might find it impossible to ignore a catcher who has hit 60 home runs. The bookmakers currently have Raleigh as the favorite by a slight edge. But Judge, with another historic offensive season under his belt, has a considerable advantage in WAR (Wins Above Replacement) from Baseball-Reference, a metric that voters won’t ignore. If Raleigh manages to get to 62, it can only help his cause.

How many 50-home run seasons will we have?

Besides Raleigh’s race, it seems that the flood of 50-home run seasons has gone a bit unnoticed. We also have Kyle Schwarber with 56, Shohei Ohtani with 54 and Aaron Judge with 51, matching 1998 (Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr., Greg Vaughn) and 2001 (Barry Bonds, Sosa, Luis Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez) as the only seasons with four 50-home run sluggers. In fact, no other season has more than two.

But we could have five 50-home run hitters with Eugenio Suárez at 49, looking to join his Mariners teammate in the exclusive club. Suárez hit 36 of those home runs with Arizona before the trade to Seattle, but if he reaches 50, the Mariners will match the 1961 Yankees with Roger Maris (61) and Mickey Mantle (54) as the only team to employ two 50-home run hitters in the same season.

As for Schwarber, he is two home runs away from tying Ryan Howard’s franchise record of 58, while Ohtani has already matched his own club record set last season.

Who wins the National League batting title?

While Judge has secured the American League batting title, the National League race comes down to Trea Turner of the Philadelphia Phillies, batting .305, and Nico Hoerner of the Chicago Cubs, batting .299, who will need a big weekend to catch Turner. Turner has been out since September 7 due to a hamstring injury, but has been taking live batting practice and could return this weekend, although manager Rob Thomson said on Wednesday that Turner is still only running at 75%. At least it seems the winner will finish with a .300 average; if Turner returns, he would have to go 0-for-11 to fall below .300.

Will the Colorado Rockies’ openers make history?

We’re talking about the Rockies, so you already know this isn’t a good kind of story. They enter their final series in San Francisco with a rotation ERA of 6.64, tied with the 1996 Tigers for the worst in modern MLB history (since 1901). Some random facts about the Rockies’ starters:

• They have thrown 100 pitches in a game only twice all season: Kyle Freeland threw 100 pitches on April 8 and Germán Márquez threw 103 on June 29.
• The only Rockies starter to throw eight innings in a game: Freeland threw eight scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over the Padres, at Coors Field, on September 5.
• The Rockies have three starters with at least 15 losses (Freeland, Márquez and Antonio Senzatela), the first team to do so since the 2003 Tigers.
• Rockies starters have allowed seven or more runs in a game 26 times.

We could go on. It was an ugly season in Colorado.

A 163-game season? Devers has a chance

Here’s an under-the-radar storyline to watch this weekend, courtesy of ESPN’s research: Rafael Devers, if he plays in all three games against the Rockies, will become the first to play a 163-game season since Justin Morneau for the 2008 Twins. There have been five players who have played a 163-game season in the last 30 years. Morneau that season, Hideki Matsui for the 2003 Yankees, Albert Belle for the 1998 White Sox, Cal Ripken Jr. for the 1996 Orioles, and Todd Zeile for the 1996 Phillies/Orioles. The 163rd game of Morneau occurred in a tiebreaker against the White Sox to decide the American League Central and all other players were on teams that had games declared ties because they were suspended due to rain after they became official (which was the rule at the time). Todd Zeile is the only player on that list who was traded during a 163-game season (as Devers was this season). Of course, they all pale in comparison to a record that will never be broken. In 1962, Dodgers star Maury Wills played all 162 regularly scheduled games, plus the three games of the best-of-three regular season playoff series with the Giants, for a total of 165 games played.

Will this be Clayton Kershaw’s last start or game?

The future Hall of Famer announced his retirement last week and made his final start at Dodger Stadium last Friday, but is scheduled to start the season finale on Sunday in Seattle. With the Dodgers’ postseason rotation likely to feature Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Tyler Glasnow, Kershaw appears to be the odd man out. Note, however, that Ohtani has had at least six days of rest between all of his starts, and Snell has also had five or six days of rest for his starts, so it’s possible the Dodgers will use more than four starters in the postseason. Kershaw pitched an inning in relief on Wednesday, making himself available instead of throwing his usual bullpen session between starts. He may pitch in relief in the postseason.

“We have six incredible starters,” Kershaw said. “And so it’s just… yeah, I can do the math. So, if I want to be a part of this in any way, I’ll do whatever they want.”

Clayton Kershaw

However, with the Dodgers relegated to the first round of three, there is a possibility that he will never enter a game if they are eliminated quickly. With that in mind: watch the Dodgers game on Sunday. It could be the last time you see one of the best pitchers of all time.