Summer is rapidly becoming fall, and that means the 2025 Major League Baseball playoffs are right around the corner.
The final days of the regular season will be tension-packed, and for some teams the 162-game campaign may come down to whether they can snag enough wins in september’s final days. In the American League in particular, the stress levels are sky high, with close races in all three divisions.
Over in the national League, several teams already know they’re going to the postseason. the Philadelphia Phillies have claimed the NL East, while the Milwaukee brewers, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers can be sure that there are playoff games to come. Still, the door isn’t closed for a handful of clubs, meaning that every game will count.
Here’s what to know about the start date for the 2025 MLB playoffs, as well as how the bracket works:
MLB Playoff Format Explained for 2025
MLB has built in a buffer day between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs to accommodate potential tiebreakers for postseason qualification or rainouts during the final weekend of the season. https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-playoff-format-explained-2023
How Does the MLB Playoff Bracket Work?
The MLB playoffs utilize a set bracket that does not re-seed after each round.Here’s a breakdown of the playoff structure in both the American league and the National League:
Wild Card Series
* Third-best division winner (3) vs. third-best wild card (6)
* Best wild card (4) vs. second-best wild card (5)
Division Series
* Best division winner (1) vs. winner of the 4-5 Wild Card Series
* Second-best division winner (2) vs. winner of the 3-6 Wild Card Series
Championship Series
* Two Division Series winners (the team with the higher regular season record hosts the first four games)
World Series
* American League Championship Series (ALCS) winner vs. National League Championship Series (NLCS) winner (the team with the best regular-season winning percentage hosts the first four games). https://www.mlb.com/postseason
MLB Playoff Format Details
Twelve teams qualify for the postseason – six from the American League and six from the National League.
Each league is divided into three divisions: Central, East, and West. The three division winners automatically advance to the playoffs, earning the top three seeds. The remaining three playoff spots in each league are awarded to the teams with the best records who did not win their division – these are the Wild Card teams.
The two division winners with the best records receive a bye directly to the division Series. The third division winner and the three Wild Card teams compete in the Wild Card Series. The winners of the Wild Card Series advance to face the top two division winners in the Division Series. The winners of the division Series then compete in the Championship series,and the winners of those series face off in the World Series.