Yankees: Tommy Kahnle just misses playoffs in The Show Players League

The MLB The Show Players League has reached the postseason, but the New York Yankees won’t be participating. Tommy Kahnle was unable to lead the team to one of the league’s top eight records.

Kahnle’s Yankees finished with an 18-11 record, leaving him just a game out of the playoffs.

The league’s quarterfinals matchups are scheduled for Friday and Saturday. The semifinals will take place Saturday evening. Each round will be a best of three matchup. The championship will be a best of five series that will be played on Sunday.

The top eight players (in order) are the following: Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell, Texas’s Joey Gallo, Toronto’s Bo Bichette, New York’s Jeff McNeil, Baltimore’s Dwight Smith Jr., Chicago’s Lucas Giolito, Chicago’s Ian Happ, and Los Angeles’s Gavin Lux.

Snell will face Lux in the opening round. Gallo will face Happ. Bichette will go against Giolito. McNeil will go against Smith.

Kahnle started off poorly before turning things around. He dropped his first four games, but then won 17 of the next 21. He stood a chance at making the playoffs right up until the very end, needing a win against Houston’s Lance McCullers Jr. and a loss by Giolito (versus Cincinnati’s Amir Garrett) to get in. McCullers beat Kahnle on Wednesday evening, with the potential tying run at the plate, eliminating the Yankees.

Kahnle told MLB.com’s Adam Berry that his teammates were rooting for him, but they were also giving him a hard time when he played poorly. To his credit, he seemed to enjoy himself during the tournament:

“I get roasted by them a lot.”

MLB.com is conducting fan-voting through 8 PM EST on Thursday for a number of awards. Kahnle is among those in consideration for the Best Player and for Most Entertaining Streamer.

Kahnle is also among the Best Reactions for a moment between him and Kansas City’s Brett Phillips — an outfielder who Kahnle thought was a pitcher.

Aaron Hicks is among the names for In-Game MVP (based on the player’s statistics over the season within the tournament). Hicks had 24 hits, including 14 homers, in 40 at-bats.

The Players League was a unique idea when it was first presented and it ultimately seemed to resonate with fans much more than some expected. Being able to see the personality of some of these MLB players come out through these games has been eye-opening, especially for a league that is often criticized for not doing enough to promote its own players.