History
One wild-card team per league (1995–2011)
From 1969 through 1993, the division leaders in each league advanced to the League Championship Series, with the winners of each LCS meeting in the World Series. However, an expanding number of teams in MLB over the years made making the playoffs increasingly difficult. The new system was instituted in 1994 (but first used in 1995 because a players strike canceled the 1994 playoffs) when Major League Baseball expanded from two to three divisions per league. In the new three-division leagues, each league had four teams in the playoffs; in addition to the three division winners, the division runner-up with the best record received a wild-card spot. This assured that the team with the second-best record in its league would qualify for the postseason even if it was not a division champion.
Thus, a third postseason round was added, the Division Series. From 1995 to 1997, a yearly rotation was used to decide the match-ups in the Division Series, although the wild-card team was prevented from playing its own division's champion. Beginning in 1998, the team with the best record in the league would typically face the wild-card team and the other two division winners would play each other, with second-best division winner having home-field. However, if the division winner with the league's best record and the wild-card team came from the same division, the wild-card would face the second-best division winner in the league.
Wild Card Game (2012–2019, 2021)
The Wild Card round was initially introduced in 2012 as a single-game playoff between two wild-card teams in each league, with the winner advancing to play the top seed in the Division Series. With the adoption of MLB's new collective bargaining agreement in November 2011, baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced that a new playoff system would begin within the next two years; the change was ultimately put into place in 2012. This format was used through the 2019 season.
Wild Card Series (2020, 2022–present)
For the 2020 postseason, following a shortened 60-game regular season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MLB held a one-off Wild Card Series with eight teams in each league, thus a total of 16 playoff teams. Division champions were seeded 1–3 by record, the second-place teams seeded 4–6 by record, and the two teams with the next-best records were seeded seventh and eighth. Matchups were contested as a best-of-three series rather than individual games.
MLB returned to the previous format of one Wild Card Game per league for the 2021 postseason. Starting with the 2022 postseason, MLB added a third wild card team in each league. In the current format of the Wild Card Series, the top two division winners in each league receive a bye to the Division Series, while the lowest-seeded division winner and three wild card teams play in this round. A best-of-three series takes place, with the higher seed hosting all three games. Due to the expansion of the postseason beginning in 2022, the regular season tie-breaker game format has been eliminated.
As of the beginning of the 2024 postseason, 29 of the 30 MLB franchises have reached the Wild Card round of the postseason (either a Wild Card Game or the Wild Card Series). The New York Yankees have the most appearances with seven, and have the most wins during the Wild Card round with four. The Milwaukee Brewers have the most losses during the Wild Card round, with four. The Los Angeles Angels are the only franchise that has never played in the Wild Card round, though they qualified for the postseason in 2002 as a wild-card team.
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Analysis
Through the 2021 postseason, Wild Card Game winners have gone on to compile an overall 9–9 record in League Division Series, with Wild Card Game winners going 4–5 in the ALDS and 5–4 in the NLDS. Two Wild Card Game winners have gone on to win the World Series (the 2014 Giants and the 2019 Nationals). The 2014 postseason featured the first series sweeps involving a Wild Card Game winner; both in favor of the AL Wild Card Kansas City Royals, who swept the Los Angeles Angels in the ALDS and the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS. The Royals then met the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series, the second all-Wild Card fall classic, which the Giants won in seven games. The first all-Wild Card World Series had also involved the Giants, who lost the 2002 World Series to the then-Anaheim Angels in seven games.
In the sixteen games played since the new Wild Card system began in 2012, five have been shutouts. In eight of the eleven others, the losing team scored three or fewer runs. There have only been two games in which the losing team scored more than six runs: the 2017 NL Wild Card Game in which the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Colorado Rockies by a score of 11–8; and the 2014 AL Wild Card Game which featured the Kansas City Royals beating the Oakland Athletics 9–8 in 12 innings. The margin of victory has been four runs or more in eight of the sixteen games played. Only three games have been decided by exactly one run: the 2014 Royals–Athletics game, the 2018 Rockies–Cubs game, and the 2019 Nationals–Brewers game.
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