For the first time in a regular Major League Baseball season, a team with a losing record could make the playoffs.
Midway through their season, the Minnesota Twins lead the American League Central with a 40-41 record. Behind them are the Cleveland Guardians (38-40) and the Detroit Tigers (34-44). Someone has to win the division, and someone will qualify for the playoffs, even if that team loses more games than it wins.
Conversely, all five teams in the AL East are at .500 or better, even the last-place Red Sox (40-40), who may feel a little aggrieved by the Central’s low bar.
One factor that will help the weaker teams lead the divisions is the balanced schedule that started this season. Teams now play just 13 games against divisional rivals, down from 19. In the past, a heavy dose of division games meant that even in weak divisions the winner, bolstered by games against shaking its opponents, can manage a winning record.
Losing teams make the playoffs in more games. In most cases it’s a situation similar to what’s happening in baseball this season, where the postseason format, and the rigors of division play, lead a team to qualify even if there are better ones. option available. In other cases, the quirks of an individual period can lead to anomalies.
In MLB, three teams have made the playoffs with losing records, and all have come as a result of unusual seasons.
In 1981, after a midseason strike, a split-season format was instituted. The Kansas City Royals struggled in the first half, with a 20-30 record, but then went 30-23 and were crowned the second-half champions of the AL West, thus qualifying for the playoffs despite a combined record of 50- 53 .
In 2020, the season was shortened to 60 games due to the pandemic, and the playoffs were expanded to 16 teams. That allows the Milwaukee Brewers and the Houston Astros (both 29-31) to qualify. While the ’81 Royals and the ’20 Brewers lost their opening series, the ’20 Astros won two straight and advanced to the American League Championship Series before losing to Tampa Bay in seven games.
No MLB team in a standard season has qualified for the playoffs with fewer than 82 wins.
While the playoffs in other North American professional leagues are hardly full of losing teams, various quirks occasionally let in one or two.
Six NFL teams have made the playoffs with losing records. The first time this happened was the 1982 strike season, where only nine games were played. The Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions qualified for the expanded playoffs with 4-5 records; both lost their openers.
The 2010s were the glory years of losing teams in the NFL playoffs. The 2010 Seahawks (7-9) and the 2014 Panthers (7-8-1) both did it, and both won their opening games.
The playoffs expanded to 14 teams in 2020, opening the door for even more underdog teams to make it through. Currently, the 2020 Washington Football Team (7-9) and the 2022 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-9) are eligible. Both lost their first playoff games.
Losing teams in the playoffs is common in the NBA, where eight teams qualify for each conference. Last season, the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder both played in the play-in tournament with losing records, although they did not make the playoffs proper. A year ago, the New Orleans Pelicans made the playoffs at 36-46.
But those teams beat the 1953 Baltimore Bullets, the worst NBA playoff team ever. Under the rules at the time, four of the five teams in the East made the playoffs. Three of the teams in the division have been very good. Two are absent.
Because of this, the Bullets qualified for the playoffs with a horrible 16-54 record, thanks to the fact that the Philadelphia Warriors were even worse, at 12-57. Baltimore was swept in a two-game first round series against the Knicks.
With eight of the 12 teams making the playoffs under current rules, losing teams are regulars in the WNBA playoffs, with at least one making it every year since 2012.
The most extreme example, however, may be the United States Football League, where two of this year’s four playoff teams have losing records. The league, in only its second season, was plagued by poorly balanced divisions. In the South, all four teams are .500 or better. In the North, none of the four teams. Under USFL rules, the playoff semifinals match the top two in each division, putting the two losing teams in the playoffs and leaving out the two winning teams.
Thanks to that format, the Pittsburgh Maulers (4-6) played a postseason game against the Michigan Panthers (4-6) on Saturday. The Maulers won in overtime, 31-27, which put them in the final on July 1 against the Birmingham Stallions (8-2).
Can a team with a losing record actually win a professional title? The Maulers are 60 minutes away.