Major League Baseball

Ten of twelve postseason bracket spots are set entering the final day of the schedule. The AL West is tied between Houston and Texas, with the Astros holding the tiebreaker; the final NL Wild Card spot is a one-game race between Philadelphia and Arizona, with the D-backs holding the tiebreaker. Wild Card Series begin Tuesday; Division Series start Saturday, Oct. 3.

Houston's Yordan Alvarez enters the final days in range of the AL Triple Crown, leading in average and tied for the home run lead. Chicago's Pete Crow-Armstrong became the seventh player in MLB history -- and first Cub ever -- to complete a 40-homer, 40-steal season. Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski and New York's Cam Schlittler are both within reach of the first sub-2.00 ERA, 230-plus-strikeout season since 1972, and Philadelphia's Luis Arraez is positioned to win a batting title with a fourth different team.

The Cubs, White Sox, Guardians and Padres all clinched Thursday, joining division champions Milwaukee, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles (NL) and Atlanta, plus wild-card qualifiers New York (AL) and Boston. Remaining races: the AL Central (Cleveland holds a one-game lead over Chicago, with the loser getting the third AL wild card), the AL West (Houston and Texas tied), and the final NL Wild Card spot (Philadelphia and Arizona). No teams have been eliminated.

Alvarez leads the American League in batting average at .314 and is tied for the home run lead at 41, but trails Pete Alonso 102 RBIs to 108 with days left in the season. A Triple Crown has not been won since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.

With days left in the regular season, the AL Central (Cleveland vs. Chicago), AL West (Houston vs. Texas, both under .500) and NL wild card (Cubs, Phillies and Padres tied at 87-70) remain unsettled, while Tampa Bay and Milwaukee have already locked up top seeds and first-round byes.

In the NL, Pete Crow-Armstrong leads the MVP race on the strength of a 40-40 bid, while Jacob Misiorowski and Mason Miller lead the Cy Young and reliever-of-the-year conversations. In the AL, Yordan Alvarez and Junior Caminero are locked in a two-way MVP race, with Cam Schlittler the Cy Young front-runner.

Tampa Bay, New York Yankees, Boston, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Los Angeles Dodgers have all clinched postseason berths (Atlanta, Milwaukee and the Dodgers have clinched their divisions outright). The AL Central and AL West division races remain separated by a single game apiece, and the NL wild card is a three-way tie among the Cubs, Padres and Phillies entering the final week. The postseason begins Sept. 29.

Moreno has agreed to sell the majority stake in the Angels to Stan Kroenke, owner of the NFL's Rams and a stake in the Premier League's Arsenal, in a deal reported at a record $4 billion valuation for an MLB franchise. The sale is pending review by MLB's executive ownership committee and a vote requiring at least 75% (23 of 30) owner approval, with a close expected in early 2027.

With the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire at season's end, the league and players' union are negotiating what both sides describe as fundamentally different visions for the sport. MLB has proposed a salary cap along with draft-eligibility and international-draft changes; the MLBPA has publicly called the league's proposals 'flat out bad for baseball,' saying they would eliminate over a billion dollars in player compensation from the international and domestic system over five years.

The Phillies slugger has 231 home runs since joining Philadelphia before the 2022 season, four shy of tying Ruth's mark of 235 homers in a player's first five seasons with one franchise, set with the Yankees from 1920-24.

The Astros' designated hitter entered the final week leading the American League in batting average and tied for the league lead in home runs and RBI, putting him on pace to become the first Triple Crown winner since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.

A salary cap is the central dividing issue: owners have proposed one for the first time since 1994, while the players' union has long treated it as a non-starter. November is expected to be the pivotal month before an anticipated lockout that would shut down free agency and trades, with an informal March 2027 deadline before regular-season games would be at risk.

Alvarez is a heavy betting favorite after Aaron Judge's rib and calf injuries effectively ended his own MVP case; Crow-Armstrong is threatening to lead MLB in both offensive and defensive runs above average with an outside shot at the Cubs' single-season WAR record. Cam Schlittler leads the AL Cy Young race and Jacob Misiorowski has a wide lead in the NL.

The roughly $4 billion sale to Clearlake Capital's Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones was approved in August; separately, Angels owner Arte Moreno has agreed to sell to Stan Kroenke at a record $4 billion valuation, pending an ownership-committee and league vote expected to close in early 2027.

Atlanta, Milwaukee and the Dodgers have clinched their divisions; Tampa Bay, the Yankees, Boston and Philadelphia have clinched playoff berths. Cleveland leads the White Sox by one game in the AL Central, Texas leads Houston by 1.5 in the AL West, and the Cubs, Padres and Phillies remain locked in a tight race for the NL's final two wild-card spots.