Low-Budget Teams Crash MLB Playoffs As Mets and Astros Stumble

The 2025 Major League Baseball playoff field is now set, and the 12-team group includes plenty of history and a hefty dose of disruption to the sport’s traditional economic order. 

The Guardians, despite the No. 25 luxury-tax payroll at $121.4 million, claimed the American League Central title Sunday after the Tigers lost to the Red Sox, 4–3. Rebounding from a deficit of 15 and a half games behind the Tigers in early July, Cleveland completed the largest comeback in the 57-season history of MLB divisional play, topping the 14-game revival by the 1978 Yankees. 

The Reds, holding the No. 22 payroll at $140.9 million, are the other half of the low-budget Ohio teams crashing this year’s playoff party. Cincinnati claimed the final National League wild card spot Sunday, despite a 4–2 loss to the Brewers, after the Mets fell 4–0 to the Marlins. 

In June, the Mets held MLB’s best record, reflecting their No. 2 payroll of $340.5 million. The team, however, closed the season with a 7-14 slide to complete their shocking exit from the postseason chase, and big organizational changes in Queens, N.Y., are quite possible this offseason. 

The other playoff position solidified Sunday was the Blue Jays winning the AL East division and the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs after beating the Rays 13–4 on Sunday, and holding off a furious late-season rally by the Yankees. Toronto, a division champion for the first time in 10 years, entered play on the final day of the regular season tied with New York, which will have the No. 4 seed as the AL’s top wild card team. 

The wild card playoffs begin Tuesday with these four matchups:

• Tigers-Guardians: After battling all season for the division title, the two teams will pick the rivalry right back up with the series at Progressive Field.
• Padres-Cubs: A rematch of the 1984 NL Championship Series, the teams played two series in the first three weeks of the season, splitting six games. Chicago is back in the postseason in a full season for the first time since 2018. 
• Red Sox-Yankees: Despite finishing third in the AL East behind the Yankees and Blue Jays, Boston still earned its first playoff berth since 2021. The matchup will revive one of the great rivalries not only in baseball, but in all of sports.
• Reds-Dodgers: Los Angeles is trying to become the first repeat World Series winner since the 1998–2000 Yankees, something that, despite a widening financial divide across baseball, shows an element of competitive balance unmatched in major U.S. sports.

The Brewers and Phillies earned first-round byes in the NL playoffs, while the Blue Jays and Mariners did so in the AL. Those four teams will begin postseason play in the division series round, starting this Saturday against the winners from the wild card round. 

The playoffs in particular will be a showcase for Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, this year’s MLB breakout star and home run leader with 60, and a competitor with Yankees superstar Aaron Judge in the high-profile race for AL MVP. Seattle won its first division title since 2001.

As the postseason field was set, a modern-day dynasty was interrupted, at least for this year, as the Astros missed the postseason for the first time since 2016. The eight-year run for Houston included World Series wins in 2017 and 2022, and AL pennants in 2019 and 2021.