It was a long five months and a thrilling day 162. Now, it all comes down in the month of October. The quest for the Commissioner’s Trophy kicks off today with the Wild Card Series as four teams from the American and National Leagues face off with the chance to advance to the Division Series this upcoming weekend. 

American League wild card matchups feature the Detroit Tigers facing the Cleveland Guardians and the Boston Red Sox facing last year’s World Series runner-up, the New York Yankees. The National League sees the San Diego Padres against the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds facing the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. 

The teams that barely missed out on the playoffs were the New York Mets and the Houston Astros. Why is this significant? 

Well, at the beginning of September, the Astros were in the top spot of their division. If they had won the division, they would have been automatically in the playoffs. Instead, they miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

The Mets are a more complex story that needs to be thought of and psychologically studied. On June 12, the Mets had the best record in baseball at 45-24, looking like they were unstoppable. Instead, from that moment on, they went 41-55 and missed the playoffs with Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and now free agent Pete Alonso having great individual seasons. 

“It’s kind of beyond frustration,” said Alonso in his postgame interview on SportsNet New York after losing to the Miami Marlins Sunday Afternoon. “I think it’s just straight up disappointing. And there’s no other way to sugarcoat it and it’s just the way it is.”  

Moving forward to the Wild Card Series themselves, the Yankees and Red Sox meet for an opportunity to play their division rivals and the number one team in the American League: the Toronto Blue Jays. It brings another storyline to the famous rivalry as both teams will meet for the first time in this new playoff format that began in the 2022 season.

The Detroit Tigers versus Cleveland Guardians, a rematch of last year’s division series is expected to be another fun three-game series as both teams battle to face the Mariners. During the final month of the season, the Tigers had a 10.5-game lead over the Guardians, who were in third place in the division behind the Kansas City Royals and the Tigers. However, the Tigers got swept by both Cleveland and the Atlanta Braves during their last regular season homestand, and then lost two out of three games in Cleveland to force the division-deciding final weekend, in which Detroit lost two of three against the Red Sox. 

In the National League, the Cincinnati Reds look to pull off a major upset and stun the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in hopes of playing the Philadelphia Phillies in the divisional round. 

In the final wild card matchup, the Chicago Cubs, under second-year manager Craig Counsell, look to defeat the San Diego Padres in what will most likely be the most competitive of the four series. The winner will end up facing the Milwaukee Brewers, who had the best record in baseball, ending the season with on a 71-37 record stretch to finish 96-65. 

This postseason is very interesting, mainly because there is no typical favorite to win it all this season. At the beginning of the season, the Dodgers were favored to win it all. Now, it is all wide open. The Red Sox made a significant trade during the season that ended up turning their season around from a team that was not living up to expectations to becoming a young, competitive team looking to make some noise. The same could be said about the Reds. They made good trades and brought up some of their young talent, and it worked. 

It is going to be exciting and interesting to see what happens this October. The first game starts today at 1 p.m. as the Guardians host the Tigers on ESPN. The World Series begins Friday, Oct. 24.