When do the MLB Playoffs start?

While May is hardly the time to steadfastly scoreboard watch as the Yankees battle it out in the AL East, being a playoff contender at the start of the month has long been a fairly solid predictor of end-of-season standings. So has being in last place. One's good, one's bad.

As the Yankees attempt to regain their early momentum and stay close to the mid-prime Baltimore Orioles in the division race, curious fans will undoubtedly spend the season's second half searching for the details of the Wild Card. You know, just in case it ends up being relevant.

Plenty of teams have made deep postseason runs from the Wild Card portion of the bracket, which has held true after recent playoff expansion. Just look at the Rangers and Diamondbacks, who went from also-rans to World Series foes thanks to the current MLB playoff format. Clearly, the Yankees intend to make noise, no matter what their seed is.

When does the MLB regular season end?

The MLB regular season ends on Sept. 29, 2024. The New York Yankees' final game of the regular season will occur against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Yankee Stadium.

When does the World Series begin?

Game 7 of the World Series is currently scheduled for Nov. 2, and the postseason begins on Oct. 1. Packing an additional round into the proceedings won't drag quite as long this year, thanks to the regular season opening at the tail end of March instead of several days into April.

2024's warm weather World Series was nice for the gathered media, but odds are they won't be quite so lucky this year. Blankets in Baltimore or anoraks in Atlanta.

How many teams make the MLB playoffs?

Thanks to the widespread success (?) of the 2020 mid-pandemic playoffs (and requisite money-making opportunities once the doors opened up), the new MLB playoff format features 12 teams, six from each league. The first round features best-of-three battles between two of the three Wild Cards, and the lowest-seeded Wild Card against the lowest-seeded division winner. Yes, one team per league can spend a whole year atop their division, and still get stuck in a coin flip series. At least every one of the games is in the higher seed's home ballpark. Hey! Abolish divisions much?

In the two World Series played since the formal introduction of this format, three of the four participants have been Wild Card teams, as well as one of the two World Series champions.

Bold predictions for MLB playoffs

At this juncture, it feels like the Baltimore Orioles have enough youth (in both the bigs and below the surface) to capture the AL East, especially considering they've already erased the Yankees' hot start. That said ... the rest of the division isn't quite as strong as anticipated. Would anyone be stunned if both the Yankees and Red Sox made the postseason's newest edition?

As for other surprising teams that appear to be for real, the Seattle Mariners' pitching onslaught will make them particularly dangerous in a short series, whether they're able to outlast the dangerous Rangers and Astros in the AL West or not.

World Series prediction? Mariners vs. Phillies, who will welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers' "super team" to Philadelphia and greet them warmly, leaving them wondering what exactly just happened.