The final weekend of the 2025 MLB season is upon us, and there is still a lot to play for. Eight teams have secured playoff spots, while eight remain alive fighting for the final two spots.
In addition to the teams desperately trying to punch their tickets to the postseason, two American League division races remain undecided. With all that in mind we’ve ranked the top five series of the season’s final weekend.
The Red Sox will host the Tigers in the final weekend’s most important series. The two teams currently hold the AL’s final wild card spots, and Detroit is still in contention for the AL Central. The Tigers’ collapse has been stunning. They led the division by 14 games on July 8, and were ahead of the Guardians by 15 1/2. They also led Cleveland by 10 1/2 games on September 1 and 9 1/2 on September 10. Now they’re tied atop the division. Detroit also leads the Astros by just one game for the AL’s final wild card spot, so there’s a chance they miss the postseason completely.
While the Yankees and Blue Jays are tied atop the AL East, Boston is sitting in a solid position, with a magic number of one. The Red Sox appear locked into the second wild-card spot, which means they’ll be traveling to face New York, Toronto, Cleveland or Detroit in the opening round. It will be Boston’s first postseason berth since 2021.
The Mets have been a mess for two months, but still have the final playoff spot in the NL cornered. While Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso have done their best to lift the Mets to the playoffs, the team’s pitching staff has utterly disintegrated. They’ll need to perform this weekend to clinch a spot.
New York will travel to Miami to face a plucky Marlins team that wasn’t eliminated until Thursday afternoon. The Fish look like a squad that could be a dangerous next season, led by Kyle Stowers and rookie Jakob Marsee. They’ll do their best to play spoilers this weekend.
The Mariners have a chance to clinch the top seed in the American League as Cal Raleigh chases the single-season AL home run record. / Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images
Led by Cal Raleigh’s incredible season, the Mariners have clinched their first AL West title since 2001. Now they’ve turned their attention to earning the American League’s top seed. Seattle sits one game behind the Blue Jays and Yankees for the No. 1 spot in the AL heading into the weekend.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers have clinched the NL West and are locked into the No. 3 seed. They don’t have much to play for besides lining everything up for the opening round, where they will host a wild-card series. Still, given how awful their bullpen has been over the past few months, getting some guys work and trying to get them in rhythm for the postseason could be vitally important.
The Diamondbacks are still battling for a playoff spot heading into the final series of the year, which is something once thought to be highly improbable when they sold heavily at the trade deadline. Arizona is only one game behind the Mets for the final wild card spot and continues to battle elbows out with New York and Cincinnati to get into the big dance.
Meanwhile, the Padres still have an outside shot at hosting a wild-card series in the opening round. San Diego trails the Cubs by two games and holds the tiebreaker over Chicago. If the Friars win out and the Cubs falter, Petco Park would get first-round home games. It would be a huge advantage for San Diego, which is 49–29 at home this season. If the Padres can’t do it, they’ll head to Wrigley to open the postseason. Either way, the Padres and Cubs will face each other in the postseason for the first time since 1984.
As mentioned above, the Cubs are in the postseason, but are fighting the Padres to see who will host their rematch of the 1984 NLCS. Chicago has stumbled down the stretch and now sits two games above the Friars for the top wild-card spot. This weekend, the Cubs will face their archrival, who would love to spoil the party.
St. Louis is stumbling to the finish line of a disappointing season. The Cardinals were 51–46 at the All-Star break and in the thick of the wild card race. They’ll enter the weekend 78–81 with a -48 run differential. While the Red Birds don’t have postseason aspirations at this point, they can make things very uncomfortable for their friends in Chicago.
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