The Twelve MLB Playoff Teams for 2025

It was down to the wire yesterday as it took the final game for the playoff slots to be finalized. The three nearby teams are all in--Guardians, Reds, and Tigers. The Guardians had a record comeback by coming from 16 and a half games down to nose out the Tigers for the AL Central title. They went 20-5 in September.

Here are the 12 who made the playoffs, ranked by the size of the metropolitan area they play in: Yankees (1), Dodgers (2), Cubs (3), Phillies (5), Blue Jays (7), Red Sox (11), Tigers (12), Mariners (15), Padres (17), Reds (23), Guardians (24), Brewers (26).

And here are the 12 teams ranked by total payroll: Dodgers (2), Yankees (3), Phillies (4), Blue Jays (5), Padres (9), Cubs (10), Red Sox (12), Mariners (16), Tigers (17), Reds (22), Brewers (23), Guardians (25).

It aoparent from these lists that the most impressive teams in 2025 are the Brewers, Guardians, and Reds, all three of whom made the postseason despite being in the bottom ten in both market size and payroll. The biggest loser, by far, is the Mets, who missed out on the playoffs depsite having the biggest payroll at $323M.