The Wild Card round was initially introduced in 2012 as a single-game playoff between two wild-card teams in each league, with the winner advancing to the Division Series. With the adoption of MLB's new
collective bargaining agreement in November 2011, baseball commissioner
Bud Selig announced that a new playoff system would begin within the next two years; the change was ultimately put into place in 2012. This format was used through the 2019 season. For the
2020 postseason, following a shortened 60-game regular season due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, MLB held a one-off Wild Card Series with eight teams in each league, thus a total of 16 playoff teams. Division champions were seeded 1–3 by record, the second-place teams seeded 4–6 by record, and the two teams with the next-best records were seeded seventh and eighth. Matchups were contested as best-of-three series rather than individual games. MLB returned to the previous format of one Wild Card Game per league for the
2021 postseason, before it changed to two best-of-three Wild Card series per league
the next year. As of the beginning of the 2024 postseason, 29 of the 30 MLB franchises have reached the Wild Card round of the postseason (either a Wild Card Game or the Wild Card Series). The
New York Yankees and the
Tampa Bay Rays each have the most appearances with five, and have the most wins during the Wild Card round with three each. The
Milwaukee Brewers, the
Athletics, the
St. Louis Cardinals and the
Toronto Blue Jays each have the most losses during the Wild Card round, with three each. The
Los Angeles Angels are the only franchise that has never played in the Wild Card round. won the National League Wild Card Game and went on to win that season's
World Series.
Analysis Through the 2021 postseason, Wild Card Game winners have gone on to compile an overall 9–9 record in League Division Series, with Wild Card Game winners going 4–5 in the ALDS and 5–4 in the NLDS. Two Wild Card Game winners have gone on to win the World Series (the 2014 Giants and the 2019 Nationals). The 2014 postseason featured the first series sweeps involving a Wild Card Game winner; both in favor of the AL Wild Card
Kansas City Royals, who swept the
Los Angeles Angels in the
ALDS and the
Baltimore Orioles in the
ALCS. The Royals then met the
San Francisco Giants in the
2014 World Series, the second all-Wild Card fall classic, which the Giants won in seven games. The first all-Wild Card World Series had also involved the Giants, who lost the
2002 World Series to the then-Anaheim Angels in seven games. In the sixteen games played since the new Wild Card system began in 2012, five have been shutouts. In eight of the eleven others, the losing team scored three or fewer runs. There have only been two games in which the losing team scored more than six runs: the 2017 NL Wild Card Game in which the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Colorado Rockies by a score of 11–8; and the 2014 AL Wild Card Game which featured the Kansas City Royals beating the Oakland Athletics 9–8 in 12 innings. The margin of victory has been four runs or more in eight of the sixteen games played. Only three games have been decided by exactly one run: the 2014 Royals-Athletics game, the 2018 Rockies-Cubs game, and the 2019 Nationals-Brewers game. ==Results==