MLB Bracketology: Projecting baseball’s playoff field and why Brewers, Red Sox are primed for October runs

We're just over one week away from finalizing the Major League Baseball playoff field for the 2026 season, but we're starting to get a pretty good idea. There have been four clinchers so far, as we know the Rays and Yankees are playoff-bound, while the Brewers and Dodgers have won their respective divisions.

Let's have a little fun here and not only predict how the playoff field will look, but take it a step further and predict each round as well. We did this last week, but things happened in the ensuing days and some things are different now.

Aaron Judge leaving the Yankees' game on Wednesday has me nervous enough that I'm not going to put the Yankees ahead of the Rays for the one seed. Also, the Guardians winning the series over the White Sox changed things in the AL Central and though the White Sox are reeling pretty badly right now, they'll still hold onto a playoff berth. In the AL West, no one is impressive but the Astros are the best of the sorry bunch. That leaves us lined up like so (note that the Red Sox are going to have the third-best record in the…

Original source: https://www.cbssports.com/