It’s been awhile since the Royals were in the post-season.
The Royals are on the cusp of making the playoffs for the first time since they won it all in 2015. Back in those days, baseball had an exciting one-game winner-take-all matchup of Wild Card teams, a format that benefitted the Royals when they defeated the Athletics in 2014.
But the playoff format since then has changed. In 2022, baseball added a third Wild Card team, and restructured the playoffs to get away from the one-game playoff and provide more incentives to finish among the top two teams in each league. Under the new format, six teams in each league make the post-season. The top three seeds are the three division winners, while the bottom three seeds are the Wild Card teams that have the best record among non-division winners. So the #4 seed could have a better record than the #3 seed, but will be seeded lower because they did not win their division. This will almost certainly be the case in the American League with the Eastern Division runner-up likely to finish with a better record than the Western Division-leading Houston Astros (in fact, the Royals are currently the second Wild Card team, and they have a better record than the Astros).
The top two teams in each league will have a bye during the Wild Card battles. The #3 seed (the worst division winner) will host the #6 seed (the worst Wild Card team) while the #4 seed (the best Wild Card team) will host the #5 seed (the second-best Wild Card team). The series will be a best-of-three game series with no days off, with all games played at the home stadium of the higher seed. The games would take place the Tuesday-Thursday following the end of the season.
This is what the American League playoffs would look like with the current standings.
#1 seed New York Yankees (87-63) - BYE
#2 seed Cleveland Guardians (86-64) - BYE
#6 seed Minnesota Twins (79-70) at #3 seed Houston Astros (81-68)
#5 seed Kansas City Royals (82-68) at #4 Baltimore Orioles (84-66)
The Royals currently trail the Guardians by three games for the Central Division, which could give them the #2 seed. They trail the Orioles by two games for the top Wild Card spot, the #4 seed. They have a 2.5 game lead on the Twins for the #6 seed. So if they want to be guaranteed any home games in the playoffs, they’ll need to catch either the Orioles or Guardians.
This format may seem a bit unfair to the lower-seeded teams to get no home games, but so far the lower seed has won five of the eight series. In fact, three pennant winners in the last two World Series began as lower-seeded teams in the Wild Card round - the 2022 Phillies, the 2023 Diamondbacks, and the 2023 champion Texas Rangers.
The winners of the Wild Card round advance to the League Divisional Series, a more traditional best-of-five game series with the higher seed hosting games 1, 2, and 5 (if necessary), and the lower seed hosting games 3, and 4. The winner of the #3 vs. #6 series will play the #2 seed, while the winner of the #4 vs. #5 series will play the #1 seed, with no re-seeding if upsets occur. The two winners will face off in the League Championship Series, with the winner advancing to the World Series. Home-field advantage for the World Series will be based on best record.
Baseball has also eliminated tiebreaker games, so if two teams tie for the final post-season spot, there will no longer be a “game 163” to determine who gets in. MLB will instead use their tiebreaker system, with head-to-head records as the first tiebreaker. The Royals currently have tiebreakers over the Guardians and Tigers, but do not have tiebreakers over the Orioles, Yankees, Astros, or Twins.
What do you think of the new format? Is there a matchup you’d prefer for the Royals? One you’d like them to avoid?
