Final weekend of the MLB season: Playoff berths, rankings, pursuits of Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, and more

We’re only a few days away from October, which means the Major League Baseball postseason is almost here. With the exception of the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves, who will play a doubleheader on Monday after their plans were disrupted by Hurricane Helen, each club will conclude its regular season schedule on Sunday.

There may only be three days left on the calendar for most of them MLBBut this does not mean that everything is decided. Far from it, actually.

With that in mind, we here at CBS Sports wanted to provide a helpful guide to what’s at stake going into Friday’s slate of games. Below you’ll find nine of the most important unresolved dynamics, from qualifying positions and seedings to individual pursuits of noteworthy achievements – all compiled with the goal of helping you prioritize which games deserve your attention over the next three days.

Let’s get to it.

1. Playoff berths

Coming into Friday, eight of the 12 playoff berths had been determined. The New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Guardians, and Houston Astros have all punched their tickets in the American League. The Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres have done the same in the National League.

Two more teams could secure their spots on Friday: The Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers will be able to enter with either a win or a Minnesota Twins loss to the Baltimore Orioles. These wins would complete the AL side of the bracket.

The NL side will take longer to resolve itself. The Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks entered Friday tied at second and third, with the Braves back in the game. As mentioned in the intro, the Mets and Braves will play a doubleheader on Monday.

2. Seed positioning

Of course, there’s more to the playoff bracket than just the teams participating. There’s also the issue of seeding, which is especially important at the top of the league because it determines who will have home-field advantage should the top two seeds advance to the league’s Championship Series.

The top seed in the AL could be locked up as early as Friday night. The Yankees need a win over the Pittsburgh Pirates and a Guardians loss to the Astros to secure first place. If just one of those criteria is met Friday night, the Yankees will be in position to take first place on Saturday.

The top seed in the National Football League cannot be decided on Friday, although the Dodgers will enter with a one-game lead over the Phillies. The Phillies own the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the season series, suggesting the race could come to a conclusion.

3. The White Sox are on the brink of history

Last Sunday, the Chicago White Sox tied the MLB’s modern single-season record for losses, losing their 120th game of the year. It seemed certain, then, that the White Sox would lose another game, their 121st, over the coming days and pass the expansion 1962 New York Mets for the worst season in modern MLB history.

To their credit, the White Sox have so far avoided their 121st loss, sweeping a three-game series from the Los Angeles Angels to improve their mark to 39-120. The White Sox will close out the year with a three-game set against the Tigers.

The conditions may not seem right for another White Sox sweep: Not only are the Tigers 9-1 against the White Sox this season, but, as noted above, they have something left to play for in the form of a playoff berth.

4. Ohtani triple crown watch

Sure, Shohei Ohtani has already posted a 50-50 season. And yes, he cleared 400 total bases. But, believe it or not, he may have one more historic achievement before the playoffs start: capturing the first Premier League Triple Crown since Joe Medwick in 1937.

Instead, Ohtani will head into the Dodgers’ season-closing series against the Colorado Rockies with a chance to win the National League’s Triple Crown.

Here’s a look at Ohtani’s standing in the three relevant categories as of Friday morning:

• Batting average: .305, third in the NL, trailing by .007 points
• He runs the house: 53, leading the Eredivisie by 14
• Runs batting in: 126, leading the Eredivisie by 15

It’s fair to think Ohtani will finish the season leading the National League in both home runs and hits. Can he pass both Luis Arez and Marcell Ozuna in batting average? We’ll find out.

5. Judge is chasing 60 home runs

Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge recovered from a (relative) home run slump by pitching in five straight games. He has now hit 58 home runs this season, making it plausible that he has hit 60 for the second time in his big league career.

Judge, whose Yankees will host the Pirates for three games this weekend, homered 62 times during the 2022 season en route to establishing new franchise and AL single-season records. It seems unlikely (though not entirely impossible) that he would tie his own record. But a more realistic goal is to come back twice to reach 60.

If Judge accomplishes the feat, he will become the third player in history to hit 60 or more home runs in two separate seasons. others? Sammy Sosa (three) and Mark McGwire (two).

6. Ramirez is looking to join the 40-40 club

Ohtani’s 50-50 club formation should not obscure that Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez is on the verge of becoming the seventh player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season.

Ramirez enters Friday’s series-opening contest against the Astros needing just two home runs to gain membership. He’s on 38 home runs and 40 stolen bases.

Other members of the 40-40 Club are Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr., Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, and Jose Canseco.

7. Arraez is eyeing a third consecutive batting title in history

We noted that the only thing separating Ohtani from the NL Triple Crown is his third-place batting average. The current leader is a familiar one, as Padres DH Luis Arraez attempts to reclaim his third straight batting title.

Arraez, who is hitting .312, will enter play Friday two points ahead of Marcell Ozuna and seven points ahead of Ohtani. These are the only three eligible players in the NFL with an average over .300.

As MLB.com noted earlier this year, Arraez will become the first player in history to win three titles in three years with three different teams.. Arraez did it with the Twins in 2022, the Marlins last year, and possibly the Padres this year.

8. Sale and Skubal chase the Triple Crown

Ohtani isn’t the only player gunning for the Triple Crown, but he’s the only hitter to do so. Both Atlanta’s Chris Sale and Detroit’s Tarik Skubal are in position to win the league’s Triple Crowns — meaning, for reference, wins, ERA, and strikeouts.

Sale and Skubal are sure to lead their respective league in wins and ERA. Sale appears to have a more secure lead in hitting: he is one ahead of Dylan Cease (who made his final regular start a few days ago) and 12 ahead of Zack Wheeler. Meanwhile, Skubal has five more hits than Royals lefty Cole Ragans.

Both Skubal and Ragans are scheduled to start on Sunday. It’s unclear whether these appearances will happen as planned, for reasons we’ll cover in the next subheading.

Shane Bieber technically won the AL Triple-A during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The last two full-season Triple Crown winners occurred in 2011: Justin Verlander in the AL, and Clayton Kershaw in the National League.

9. Rotation alignment

We promise more on Skubal and the Ragans, here it is.

It would be appropriate for the Tigers and Royals to clinch playoff berths on Friday or even Saturday. Whatever it takes for them to be able to switch from starting that left-hander on Sunday — that way, they can be optimally deployed during the wild-card round.

If either/both are forced to receive the ball on Sunday, their teams will face a dilemma during the first round: either start Game 3 on short rest, or risk not starting a single playoff game. Neither is an ideal scenario.