How the MLB playoff bracket is setting up in the final week of the regular season

Major League Baseball is wrapping up its final week and the 2020 MLB playoffs get underway next week with the wild card round. We’ll see a new look to the postseason for at least this year. It will feature eight teams in each league squaring off in best-of-three series. They will advance to best-of-five Division Series matchups, then best-of-seven LCS and World Series matchups.

The playoff field will include the six division winners, the six second place teams, and the top two remaining teams in each league. The Wild Card round will have the higher seed in each series hosting all three games. After that, there will be a limited home field advantage in the playoffs this year, with the league attempting a quasi-bubble setup. The two NLDS series will take place in Arlington and Houston, while the two ALDS series will take place in San Diego and Los Angeles. The NLCS will take place in Arlington and the ALCS will take place in San Diego. The World Series will then happen in Arlington.

The American League Wild Card round will start on Tuesday, September 29th and the National League Wild Card round will start on Wednesday, September 29th, and both will run three straight days. The full schedule of games is here.

The matchups are slowly being settled, and we’ll have everything sorted out by the end of the coming weekend. Here is what the bracket would look like. We’ll update as it changes over the remaining four days of scheduled regular season games.

Teams that have clinched a division title have three asterisks (***) next to their name. Teams that have clinched a wild card berth have one asterisk (*) next to their name. Teams that have not yet clinched a playoff berth have nothing next to their name. Although the Indians have a better record than the Astros and Yankees, they are in third place in their division. The second place team in each division gets a higher seed than the wild card teams.

American League Wild Card round

Toronto Blue Jays (8)* at Tampa Bay Rays (1)***
Chicago White Sox (7)* at Oakland Athletics (2)***
Houston Astros (6)* at Minnesota Twins (3)***
New York Yankees (5)* at Cleveland Indians (4)*

National League Wild Card round

Milwaukee Brewers (8)* at Los Angeles Dodgers (1)***
Cincinnati Reds (7)* at Atlanta Braves (2)***
Miami Marlins (6)* at Chicago Cubs (3)***
St. Louis Cardinals (5)* at San Diego Padres (4)*