60 Games

Baseball is back. The negotiation between the MLB and the MLBPA finally came to a conclusion. However, the negotiation did not go smoothly. There are so many disputes between the two parties. But baseball will be back in July. It’s going to be a short season. As some media reported, a 60-game season will be implemented. It’s not the regular baseball season we expected, but at least we have baseball and it may create something unexpected. Looking back to the last 3 seasons, what happened after 60 games? Which teams would be in the playoff?

2017 (60 games)

AL			NL
East	Yankees	37-23	East	Nationals	38-22
Central	Twins	32-28	Central	Brewers	32-28
West	Astros	42-18	West	Rockies	37-23
Wild Card	Red Sox Orioles Indians	33-27 31-29 31-29	Wild Card	Dodgers D-Backs	35-25 35-25

Given the same playoff structure, after 60 games, Buck Showalter would lead the Orioles to play a tiebreaker for the second wild card berth, against the Cleveland Indians. Meanwhile, in the national league, the Milwaukee Brewers would clinch the NL Central title. The Chicago Cubs, which just broke the curse in 2016, would be eliminated. In the wild west, the Dodgers would play the wild card game against the Diamondbacks.

By the way, Cody Bellinger made his MLB debut on April 25, 2017, the Dodgers’ 20th game of the season. If there were only 60 games in that season, he would have finished the season with 12 home runs.

2018 (60 games)

AL			NL
East	Yankees Red Sox	41-19 41-19	East	Braves Nationals	35-25 35-25
Central	Indians	32-28	Central	Brewers	37-23
West	Mariners	38-22	West	D-Backs	32-28
Wild Card	Astros	37-23	Wild Card	Cubs	36-24

Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees would play a tiebreaker for the AL East title. In the meantime, the American League West title would go to the Seattle Mariners and they would make the first playoff appearance since 2001. The long playoff drought would be ended.

Looking at the National League, Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves would have to fight for the NL East champions. Also, you couldn’t find the Los Angeles Dodgers, the 2017 NL pennant winner was only 30-30 after 60 games in the 2018 season. The NL west title would go to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Both AL west and NL west would be really wild.

2019 (60 games)

AL			NL
East	Yankees	38-22	East	Phillies Braves	33-27 33-27
Central	Twins	40-20	Central	Cubs Brewers	34-26 34-26
West	Astros	40-20	West	Dodgers	41-19
Wild Card	Rays Rangers	37-23 32-28	Wild Card

The Rangers would have made it to the playoff for the first time since 2016. There would be two tiebreakers for the division titles in the National League, one in the NL East and the other one in the Central. The winning teams would clinch the division titles and the losing teams would play in the wild card game. Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals could not make it to the postseason. The Nationals went 27-33 and the winning percentage did not even reach .500.

The 60-game season is definitely not the same baseball season we know. There would be some surprises, for example, several tiebreakers for division titles or wild card berth. Also, some teams that have long playoff droughts, could be playoff contenders. Nevertheless, because the season is really short, how to use players well will be extremely important in “every game.” If a closer blows save too often, let’s say 3 or 4 times, the team will probably drop from the division title to nothing. In the meantime, some players usually need 1 month or 2 months to heat up, they are not going to have enough time this season. They have to be 100% ready this summer. In this short season, the front office, coaching staff and players all have to adopt quickly.