MLB playoffs, 2020: The shiny world of the .500 postseason
By Rick Soisson
The 2020 MLB postseason could be a time for .500 teams to find success.
An examination of the MLB playoffs potential on Sept. 8 and a question from one of our editors that day suggested an idea to me.
It’s that time of the year when a particular question among baseball writers is asked almost every day: If the season were to end today, who would be in the MLB playoffs? So, I glanced at those standings the morning after a seesaw, 9-8 win by the Philadelphia Phillies over the New York Mets.
This was a game related to the editorial question: Could the Mets be dangerous in the postseason?
The Mets had staged rallies in the fifth and seventh innings Sept. 7 to erase Philadelphia’s 6-0 lead before the Phillies tied the game at seven in the top of the eighth. Both teams eventually scored in the COVID 10th – with the Mets falling just short of enough momentum to flip Philly off the seesaw.
The Metropolitans had scored five runs (four earned) against three of Philadelphia’s five relievers, almost half of the Fightin’ bullpen. That constantly changing group has been much maligned, and required the acquisition of four new people before the trade deadline.
Those four have made the unit only slightly better, and a good offensive team like the Mets can easily score runs against it most nights.
Let’s turn back to the question posed, however: Could the Mets do some damage in the postseason? Surely – they have Jacob deGrom, and they could face a team whose bullpen isn’t functioning very well.
But that won’t happen, will it?
Well, it might not. The morning of Sept. 8 the Mets were running 11th in the 15-team NL race for the postseason. They were 19-23, with 18 games to go. In other words, they were way back in the pack in the third lap of a mile run.
Other teams were ahead of them but had played fewer games – and thus, face a tougher row to hoe – but let’s stick with the track analogy, and consider all the doubleheaders coming for some teams a “conditioning challenge.” The teams are where they are.
The Phillies, for example, are the current fifth seed in the NL, but are one of those teams facing multiple doubleheaders. They have played five fewer games than the Mets, and New York could pass them ultimately. The bell lap’s coming up, though.
The fact of the matter is that, as this is being typed, 21 teams running for the MLB playoffs are actually above or within striking distance of the eighth seed in their league. The Mets are just outside that group.
However, this overall situation deserves some consideration – some marveling, in fact, even though the shortened season almost guaranteed it. Fully 70 percent of MLB teams are represented by those 21 teams. All are no more than three games below .500. Throw the singular team four games under .500 into the mix – the Mets – and almost three out of four teams are potential participants in this season’s MLB playoffs.
The Detroit Tigers are one of the teams in the “first” 21 with 20 days to go in the season. Four of the playoff seeds before play Sept. 8 have records of only one game above .500 or worse – the Yankees, Cardinals, Giants, and Marlins.
MLB owners, whatever their losses in terms of money this summer, are all thinking of Scott Rolen’s famous remark about St. Louis – “Baseball heaven.”
And regardless of which teams make this year’s MLB playoffs, you had better believe this: MLB owners will be seriously considering the notion of a 154-to-158-game season with a pandemic postseason moving forward.