It all comes down to this. One final afternoon of baseball will finalize the 2025 postseason picture — and even after 161 games, there’s still so much left to settle. Who’s going to win the American League East? Will the Mets make the playoffs?
Here are the most consequential storylines to follow for the last day of the MLB regular season, with odds powered by DraftKings Sportsbook.
AL East Rollercoaster
The New York Yankees led the AL East by as many as seven games. The Toronto Blue Jays answered with a 6.5 game lead of their own. Now, they’re tied with one game left. Sunday will determine who secures a first-round bye with the top seed in the bracket and who gets stuck in the Wild Card.
New York has won ten of 11 games to match their division rival atop the standings — but Toronto owns the tiebreaker. The Blue Jays can claim the division crown with a win over the Tampa Bay Rays, while the Yankees need to take care of business against the Baltimore Orioles and hope for a Toronto loss.
Both teams are favored to win on Sunday, but with the tiebreaker in its possession, Toronto is a massive -350 favorite to win the AL East.
Drama in the AL Central
The Detroit Tigers’ historic collapse needs to be studied. The team seemed like a lock for the top spot in the AL bracket, holding a 14 game lead in the American League Central in July. Even as late as Sept. 11, they were up 9.5 games. But they just kept losing — so much so that they found themselves tied with the Cleveland Guardians on the final day of the season. Oh, and Cleveland has the tiebreaker.
Cleveland beat the Texas Rangers on Saturday on a walk-off, bases-loaded hit by pitch, a storybook victory that punched their ticket to October and put even more pressure on Detroit. Now, the Tigers must defeat the Boston Red Sox — another team in the postseason — and hope that the Guardians’ magic runs out against the Rangers.
With Boston having a similar record, these games carry extra weight in determining the postseason positioning. If Detroit and Cleveland both win, the Guardians host the Red Sox while the Yankees/Blue Jays host the Tigers. If Detroit wins and Cleveland loses, the Tigers host the Guardians while the Yankees/Blue Jays host the Red Sox. If Detroit loses and Cleveland wins, the Guardians host the Tigers while the Yankees/Blue Jays host the Red Sox. If Detroit and Cleveland both lose, the Guardians host the Tigers while the Yankees/Blue Jays host the Red Sox.
The Guardians, a team that dug itself into a 15.5 game hole on July 7, is now a -350 favorite to claim the AL Central title and the third seed in the postseason bracket.
Who completes the NL Wild Card?
The New York Mets were two wins away from the World Series last year. They rebounded by signing generational outfielder Juan Soto to the most lucrative contract in professional sports history. They had the best record in baseball on June 12. Now, there’s a solid chance that the $340 million team doesn’t even make the playoffs.
New York enters the final day of the regular season in a deadlock with the Cincinnati Reds, a matchup in which they do not own the tiebreaker. The Mets need to take down the Miami Marlins and hope that the Reds fall to the Milwaukee Brewers.
It sounds easy enough. The Marlins aren’t in the playoff picture while the Brewers have the best record in baseball. But not so fast. Miami has proved a worthy opponent against New York, splitting their first 12 games against the Amazin’s. Meanwhile, the Reds have already taken the first two games of the set against the Brewers — just 27 outs away from their first postseason berth since 2020.
