Losing the way to the playoffs

For the first time in an ordinary Major League Baseball season, a team with a losing record was able to 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 whoever does will qualify for the playoffs, even if that team has lost more games than won.

Unlike. all five teams in the AL East are at .500 or higher, even the Red Sox in last place (40-40), who may be feeling a little sad about the low bar in the Central.

One factor that helps weak teams lead divisions is the balanced schedule that kicked off this season. Teams now only play 13 games against divisional rivals, instead of 19. In the past, the heavy dose of divisional games meant that even in a weak division, the winner, bolstered by games against its shaky rivals, could at least have a winning record.

Losing teams make the playoffs in many sports. In most cases, it’s a situation similar to what’s happening in baseball this season, where the postseason format and the rigidity of divisional play lead a team to qualify even though better options are available. In other cases, idiosyncrasies of an individual season may lead to the anomaly.

In MLB, three teams have made the playoffs with losing records, and all of them came as a result of unusual seasons.

In 1981, following a mid-season 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 second-half champions in the AL West, qualifying for the playoffs despite a combined record of 50-53. .

In 2020, due to the pandemic, the season was shortened to 60 games and the playoffs were expanded to 16 teams. That enabled 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 series in a row 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 the other North American professional leagues are barely filled with losing teams, various quirks sometimes let one or two slip in.

Six NFL teams have made the playoffs with losing records. The first time it happened was in the strike season of 1982, in which 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 for losing teams in the NFL playoffs. The 2010 Seahawks (7-9) and the 2014 Panthers (7-8-1) both made it, and both managed to win their opening games.

The playoffs expanded to 14 teams in 2020, opening the door for more losing teams to creep in. So far, the 2020 Washington Football Team (7-9) and the 2022 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-9) have qualified. Both lost in their first playoff games.

Losing teams in the playoffs is not uncommon in the NBA, where eight teams qualify for each conference. Last season, the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder both made the play-in tournament with losing records, though neither actually made the playoffs. A year earlier, the New Orleans Pelicans made the playoffs at 36-46.

But those teams towered over 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 division’s teams proved to be outstanding. Two were not.

As a result, the Bullets qualified for the playoffs with an atrocious 16-54 record, thanks to the Philadelphia 76ers being 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.

Perhaps the most extreme example is the United States Football League, where two of this year’s four playoff teams set losing records. The league was in a mess in its second season due to poorly balanced divisions. In the South, all four teams were .500 or better. In the north was none of the four teams. Under USFL rules, the playoff semifinals match the top two in each division, resulting in two losing teams making the playoffs and two winning teams staying out.

Thanks to that format, the Pittsburgh Maulers (4-6) played a postseason-game against the Michigan Panthers (4-6) on Saturday. The Maulers won 31-27 in extra time, putting them in the final against the Birmingham Stallions (8-2) on July 1.

Can a team with a losing record actually win a professional title? The Maulers are 60 minutes away.