The final weekend of the 2026 Major League Baseball regular season is upon us. While much has been sorted out when it comes to the upcoming playoffs, there are still a few unknowns as we head into each team's final three games. As for what's been settled, 10 of the 12 postseason berths have been claimed going into Friday's slate of games: On an individual front, Cubs center fielder and NL MVP frontrunner Pete Crow-Armstrong on Thursday achieved a 40-40 season, and potential AL MVP frontrunner, Yordan Alvarez of the Astros, remains (barely) alive in his bid to win the Triple Crown.
Right now, he leads the AL in home runs and batting average, but he trails Baltimore's Pete Alonso by eight in the RBI race. In other words, Alvarez will need something of a weekend miracle to pull off the rare feat. Now let's get back to the heart of the matter -- the playoff vacancy in each league and the up-for-grabs bye in the AL.
In all, four teams remain in playoff contention going into the weekend: the Astros and Rangers in the AL West race, and the Phillies and Diamondbacks in the race for the third and final wild card berth in the NL. As well, the Guardians and White Sox are still sorting out who will go into the postseason as the AL Central champ and who will go in as a wild card team. The stakes are high there because the eventual AL Central champ will get the second and final first-round bye on the AL side.
With that in mind, here's a quick look at the four teams still mathematically alive in the postseason races and what they need to do this weekend to punch their ticket to October. We'll also take a quick look at the handful of teams still sorting out seeding. The postseason begins on Tuesday with the Wild Card Series.
Honestly, the Red Sox would probably prefer to fall to the third wild card spot. That's because the second wild card team in the AL must face the Yankees in the Wild Card Series, while the third wild card gets to face the eventual AL West champ, who will at best be an 82-win team with a negative run differential. That said, Boston's probably going to be the second wild card.
They're three up on the White Sox and hold the tiebreaker, which means Chicago can't catch them. However, if the Guardians fall out of first place, they can overtake Boston. They hold the tiebreaker over the Red Sox (they split their season series, but Cleveland has the better intradivisional record).
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