On a day where all 30 teams are playing for the last time in, depending on how cynical you're feeling, six months or eighteen months, I'm somehow watching more football than baseball. Mostly because if I end up watching the Phillies game they'll just start to betray me.
The thrilling part of today's goings-on, even two days away from a really fun playoff schematic, is that there were still two spots open, both due to historic collapses. The Phillies had a huge lead for that wild card spot, then just stopped winning and had to win today's to ensure a sixth seed. The Astros, while leading the AL West, refused to stay above .500, leading to today's stalemate with the Rangers, where one needed to win while the other lost in order for anything fun to happen [and nothing fun did happen].
It's a picture of a season where nothing was pinned down, even when it should be. The Orioles and Pirates, after being eliminated, had late swells that drastically changed divisional pictures. The Marlins were a very fun spoiler of a team despite ruining their own playoff chances. The Diamondbacks kept fighting until the very end, in a way where you could never count them out. Considering how many of these non-playoff teams just lay down and die in September, it was a nice change of pace.
This makes this year's Best of the Rest superlatives post a bit more fun, because in addition to the usual amount of cynicism, I actually have some good things to say about a few of these teams. As usual, these are superlatives for the teams that didn't make the playoffs, in the same vein as 'best dressed', 'class clown' and 'most improved'. This one was in flux til post.
Most Likely To Succeed [According to the Sportswriters in January]: Seattle Mariners
Team That Peaked Too Early: St. Louis Cardinals
Team That Peaked Far Too Late: Pittsburgh Pirates
Best Squanderer of Hopes Their Fans Had in 2025: Toronto Blue Jays
Best Squanderer of Hopes Their Fans Had in May: Sacramento Athletics
Best Pitching Staff for a Team That Didn't Make the Playoffs: Pittsburgh Pirates
Worst Pitching: Colorado Rockies, third year running
Most Willing to Settle: Minnesota Twins
Most Puzzling Use of Money: Washington Nationals
Most Depressing Team To Write About Every Two Weeks: Kansas City Royals
Team Who May Be Delighted to Know That There’s An Opening Shaped Like a Doorway Where You Could, In Theory, Exit the Revolving Door, But Only if You Wanted To: Baltimore Orioles
Most Comically-Timed Injuries: Detroit Tigers
Best Immediately-Distinguished Glimmer of Hope: Miami Marlins
Best Backfiring of 'Titanic Will Never Sink' Logic: New York Mets
Most Unwilling to Recapture the Lightning in the Bottle: Toronto Blue Jays
Most Anonymous September 28-Man Roster: San Francisco Giants
Best Straw Breaking the Camel's Back: Los Angeles Angels
Team That Has No Idea What It Wants: Cincinnati Reds
Biggest Anticlimax: Texas Rangers
Best Overall Team That Didn't Make the Playoffs: Arizona Diamondbacks
Least Likely to Make This List in 2027: Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates
That's our roundup of the other 18 teams. Now it's down to the other 12 to make this a satisfying conclusion to the season. No pressure.
Thanks for the great write-ups during the regular season! Great analysis and well written as usual
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