The final day of the 2025 major league regular season calendar comes to an end today, and nearly the entire postseason schedule is still up in the air for the American League. At the same time, the teams who get in aren’t going to change, only their assignments and opponents. This unlikely scenario is going to make for a very odd of day of baseball around the league. Several teams will absolutely be resting their top players, while others will be running at low ebb after celebrating on Saturday night.
The teams have all been decided, but Sunday’s games will decide the matchups.
The Houston Astros were eliminated on Saturday just as the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians celebrated locking in a postseason berth. So we know the six teams who have advanced. The Seattle Mariners have an absolute lock on the second bye, so they will be sitting at home watching the Wild Card round no matter what happens on Sunday. For everyone else things are still up in the air after 161 games.
Right now, the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Guardians are tied at 87 wins, but the Guardians hold the season series tie-breaker, so the Tigers would have to win and the Guardians lose on Sunday to win the AL Central division. That should be a fascinating proposition after both teams partied to celebrate clinching their postseason ticket on Saturday evening.
The Tigers are sending out Chris Paddack because using Tarik Skubal to try and win the division would leave him unavailable until a potential Game 3 in the Wild Card round on short rest on Thursday. There’s also a pretty good chance the Tigers would get knocked out with their aces still on the bench. Not happening.
The Tigers are starting Chris Paddack against the Red Sox on Sunday, and we’ll assume there’s no chance Kyle Finnegan, Will Vest, Tyler Holton or Brant Hurter will be throwing. It’s a short turnaround to a really difficult three game series no matters what happens today. They need to take the opportunity to get rested as much as possible before Tuesday’s Game 1.
The Red Sox will go with something of a spot start or a full bullpen day, keeping all their top arms rested for the Wild Card round beginning Tuesday. They still don’t know their opponent yet either. Neither club is likely to be at their best, and the Red Sox would might prefer to lose and host the Guardians rather than go on the road to play the Toronto Blue Jays or New York Yankees, who have given them trouble this season.
Of course the Tigers, Guardians, and Red Sox aren’t the only ones with their fate still to be decided.
The Blue Jays and the Yankees are tied at 93 wins, with the Jays holding the tiebreaker. One of those teams will win the AL East tomorrow and earn the first bye, securing home field advantage through the Conference Series. The other will slip back behind the Mariners to become the 3-seed and have home field in the Wild Card round. So both teams, having long since clinched, will still have every reason to play their best game on Sunday.
The Yankees will host the Baltimore Orioles in the Bronx with Luis Gil going up against the Orioles Kyle Bradish, while the Blue Jays are starting Kevin Gausman at home against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Guardians will wrap up their series at home against the Texas Rangers and lefty Patrick Corbin.
Just in the pitching assignments alone you can see who has the most to play for, as the Tigers, Guardians, Red Sox, and Mariners are more concerned with setting up their pitching staff for the postseason. The Mariners will be using RHP Bryce Miller and middle relief as they host the Dodgers in the final regular season start of Clayton Kershaw’s career.
No matter the results, the assignment is going to be difficult for the Tigers. If they win and the Guardians lose they stay in Boston, while any other result sends them right back to Cleveland. The team with the best record has a big advantage by hosting all three games in three days straight. This makes sense because there’s no reason to make the top two seeds sit around for a full week, but it certainly makes for a stern test for the weaker seeds.
If the Tigers can take two of three on the road in Cleveland or Boston in front of frenzied partisans, they’ll absolutely have earned their way into the ALDS and a return to Comerica Park eventually. Until then they’re going to have to go full road warrior mode and swing the bats a lot better than they have the past month to have a good chance to get through.
The senior circuit isn’t full decided yet either. The soaring Milwaukee Brewers have home field all the way through the World Series should they make it. The New York Mets and the scrappy Cincinnati Reds are still dueling to the final game for the last wild card berth. The other four spots are decided, with the Philadelphia Phillies holding the second bye, while the San Diego Padres and the Chicago Cubs lock up for three in Wrigley Field in the Wild Card round.
So beyond the Tigers scenarios, the really interesting storylines tomorrow involve the Blue Jays and Yankees clash for the AL East and a bye through the Wild Card round, and whether the Reds can snipe the Mets for the final spot in the National League.
So, while the Tigers are already at least in the major league’s postseason tournament, and the weekend is now dominated by football while Team USA gets dominated again in the Ryder Cup, there are a lot of reasons why the final day of regular season baseball will be a fun one worth following along.
