The Minnesota Twins are headed into the final series of the regular season, so it’s time to see where they rank against the seven American League contenders.
It’s now late September, and with fall here it’s playoff time in baseball. The Minnesota Twins currently lead the American League Central, but are very close to several other teams. Here’s where they stand for seeding:
- 2 GB of Tampa Bay Rays, the first place team.
- Even with the Oakland Athletics (though the A’s have two less games, keeping the A’s in second place).
- 1 G ahead of the White Sox for the AL Central Division Crown (Sox are now in fourth).
- 2.5 games ahead of the Yankees (who are currently in fifth).
- The Astros will finish in sixth place (the Angels would need a miracle) as they are too far behind the Top 5 teams.
- 2.0 games ahead of Cleveland, who are in seventh, despite having the fifth best record.
- 5.5 games ahead of Toronto (again, the Angels need a miracle for this spot). The Blue Jays will be locked into this spot with one more win.
This is a truly crazy race. With just three games left for the Twins, the team could finish as high as first or as low as seventh in the American League. They can face every single opponent at this point, and because of that, we break down and rank every single team in the AL playoff field.
We grade these playoff teams by grading their rotation, bullpen, lineup, and bench/intangibles on a scale of 1-5 and then average it out. It’s a process, but we’ll go through it. In addition, we also have an estimated percentage of the chance the Twins play that team. Let’s go.