Major League Baseball

MLB playoff preview: Jake & Jordan break down the 60-game "postseason"

Updated Jun. 8, 2021 3:45 p.m. ET

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By Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writers

It went by in a blink, didn’t it?

For many years, baseball was known as a marathon, not a sprint. But no longer. Sixty-game seasons are here to stay, and that means the postseason is already here. Sure, two months doesn’t feel like nearly enough time to sort out which teams are legitimately superior, but that’s not the world we live in anymore. Small samples be damned.

Your favorite player is still hitting under .180? Sorry, he’ll have to live with that all winter/summer. Your team’s ace’s ERA is still over 4.50? Ah, that’s a shame, but the regular season is already over. The Giants are the best team in the National League, the Diamondbacks will have the first pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, and Adolis García is your AL Rookie of the Year. 

Because the season is over.

It’s time to look ahead to the postseason, which obviously begins later this week. The Sweet Sixteen is back and better than ever, and we can’t wait to watch some of these best-of-three series. Let’s take a look at the matchups:

(Records through games played on Sunday, June 6 — you know, the last day of the season.)

AMERICAN LEAGUE

No. 1 Tampa Bay Rays (38-23; .632 W%) vs. No. 8 New York Yankees (31-29; .517 W%)

It has been a rough season in the Bronx, as the Yankees really backed into this postseason, barely edging out Kansas City (.509 W%) for the eighth and final AL seed. Fresh off getting swept at home by the Red Sox for the first time in a decade, the Yanks now have to face their other biggest rivals in the Rays, who knocked them out last year and are surely eager to do so again in 2021. Can Randy Arozarena match last season's playoff masterpiece? -JS

No. 2 Chicago White Sox (36-23; .610 W%) vs. No. 7 Toronto Blue Jays (30-27; .526 W%)

This is probably the most fun and watchable showdown of the first round: Vladdy and the other baseball juniors against one of the game’s most high-energy clubs. The South Siders were able to overcome Tony LaRussa’s questionable bullpen management and crotchety vibes during the regular season, but how their skipper navigates the later innings with his bullpen will determine how this series shakes out. There will be a moment in this three-game set when Vladdy comes up in a big spot late in a game, and whichever pitcher is standing 60 feet, 6 inches away might just determine which team advances. -JM

No. 3 Oakland A’s (35-26; .574 W%) vs. No. 6 Cleveland Indians (31-26; .544 W%)

At a time when teams seem to be cycling through managers like they are restricted by term limits, the two longest-tenured skippers in baseball have remained steady and secure as ever: Bob Melvin (hired in 2011) and Terry Francona (hired in 2012). They’ll face off in a tactical battle for the ages, forcing casual fans everywhere to contemplate once again how in the world these bottom-10-payroll teams continue to show up in the postseason year after year. -JS

No. 4 Boston Red Sox (36-23; .610 W%) vs. No. 5 Houston Astros (33-26; .559 W%)

Once upon a time, when MLB had only five teams from each league in the postseason, this would have been the wild-card game, but no longer. The tabloid headlines will be all about this being the Trashcan Cheating Scandal Fallout Bowl, but there are only four Red Sox hitters left from the 2018 team that got in trouble and only four Astros left (the entire infield) from the infamous 2017 can-banging squad. It’s probably a fortunate matchup for both teams, as neither fan base can really boo the other and feel like they have the moral high ground. Expect a clutch Carlos Correa homer at some point, as the Houston shortstop was outstanding in the regular season, albeit in a limited, 56-game sample. -JM

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NATIONAL LEAGUE

No. 1 San Francisco Giants (37-22; .627 W%) vs. No. 8 St. Louis Cardinals (31-29; .517 W%)

Just as we all expected, here are the Giants, having comfortably held off their significantly hyped Southern California competition to clinch the top spot in the NL. Buster Posey is inexplicably back in MVP form, which is important because the Giants' other rejuvenated veteran, Evan Longoria, is going to miss the postseason after suffering a serious shoulder injury over the weekend. They’ll take on the Cardinals, who rode breakouts from outfielder Tyler O’Neill and closer Alex Reyes to a third-place finish in the NL Central, good enough for the No. 8 seed, thanks in part to the bulk of the NL East's failing to reach .500. -JS

No. 2 Milwaukee Brewers (33-26; .559 W%) vs. No. 7 Los Angeles Dodgers (34-25; .576 W%)

This is a rematch of last year’s first-round matchup, except this time it will go down in Wisconsin, despite the Dodgers' finishing a game better than the Brewers. Them’s the breaks when you don’t win the division. The defending champs find themselves with a tough matchup in Milwaukee. In the first pair of games, the Brew Crew will roll out Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes, two guys who can dominate any offense, even one as potent as the Dodgers'. Whether we see locked-in, world-beating Mookie or underwhelming-but-still-good Mookie might just determine how this one shakes out. -JM

No. 3 New York Mets (29-23; .558 W%) vs. No. 6 Atlanta Braves (28-29; .491 W%)

Is it silly that a team under .500 not only gets to make the postseason but also gets to be the No. 6 seed? Absolutely, but those are the realities of the blah NL East and the 16-team MLB playoff field. Expected by some to win their fourth straight division title, Atlanta never really kicked it into high gear and suffered from a bunch of injuries. The Mets arguably had an even weirder season, completing only 52 games, but they roll into the postseason with a favorable matchup against the banged-up Braves. After Jacob deGrom dominates in Game 1, the Mets need to win only one of the last two games. I’m sure it’ll go to plan for them … lol not. -JM

No. 4 San Diego Padres (36-25; .590 W%) vs. No. 5 Chicago Cubs (33-26; .559 W%)

The haters insisted that no matter how many offseason splashes they made, the Padres still couldn’t top the Dodgers in the NL West. Well, who’s laughing now? San Diego will host the Cubs, who swept the Padres last week at Wrigley and are surely happy to have the postseason start now, in June, so that everyone will shut up about whether they should trade Kris Bryant. -JS

Hold on. What’s that?

There are 100 more regular-season games?! That’s so many more games! Sixty seems like plenty! 

Ah, well, if you insist — guess we’ll have to wait another few months for our postseason fix. 

Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman, creators of the Twitter account Céspedes Family BBQ, write about all things baseball for FOX Sports.

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Major League Baseball

Tampa Bay Rays

New York Yankees

Chicago White Sox

Toronto Blue Jays

Oakland Athletics

Cleveland Guardians

Boston Red Sox

Houston Astros

San Francisco Giants

St. Louis Cardinals

Milwaukee Brewers

Los Angeles Dodgers

New York Mets

Atlanta Braves

San Diego Padres

Chicago Cubs

Jacob deGrom

Vladimir Guerrero

Carlos Correa

Buster Posey

Jordan Shusterman

Jake Mintz