What is the story about?
The
road to October has already ended for some teams.
While much of baseball remains focused on division races and wild-card battles, a growing list of clubs has been relegated to thinking about next year. That group includes the New York Mets, whose $375 million-plus payroll wasn't enough to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Here's every MLB team that has been mathematically eliminated from the 2026 postseason race.
What MLB teams have been eliminated from playoff contention?
American League
- Athletics
- Kansas City Royals
- Los Angeles Angels
National League
- Cincinnati Reds
- Colorado Rockies
- New York Mets
- San Francisco Giants
- Washington Nationals
Which teams are closest to elimination?
- Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals — Both of these NL Central rivals have an elimination number of 1, which means one more loss by either of them (or one more win by the San Diego Padres) will take them out of the playoff picture.
- Miami Marlins — Elimination number is 2, which means any combination of Marlins losses and San Diego Padres wins that adds up to 2 will take them out of the playoff picture.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB teams eliminated from playoffs 2026: Who's out of the postseason race?
