List of American League Wild Card Winners

List Of American League Wild Card Winners

The wild card was established for Major League Baseball's playoffs in 1994 with the intention of helping the best teams that did not win their division to still have a chance to win the World Series. The restructuring of both the American and National Leagues from two divisions each to three made it necessary to either give one team a bye in the first round of playoffs, or create the wild card for the best second-place team. In addition, the wild card guaranteed that the team with the second best record in each league would qualify for the playoffs, even if they were in the same division with the team having the best record.

There were no division or wild-card winners in 1994, due to the 1994 Major League Baseball strike.

Beginning in 2012, a second wild card team will be added to each league. The two wild card teams in each league will face each other in a one game playoff, the winner advancing to meet the number one seed in the Division Series.

As of October 2011, the AL East has produced 13 of 17 wild-card teams; the AL West is second with three teams, while the AL Central has qualified a wild-card team only once.

Read more about List Of American League Wild Card Winners:  AL Wild-card Qualifiers By Year, Most AL Wild-card Appearances, Teams' ALDS Records As AL Wild-card Qualifier

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