
Skenes’ 1-of-1 rookie card fetches record $1.11M
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Dan HajduckyMar 21, 2025, 01:47 AM ET
Close- Dan Hajducky is a staff writer for ESPN. He has an MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University and played on the men’s soccer teams at Fordham and Southern Connecticut State universities.
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes‘ 2024 Topps Chrome Update MLB debut patch autograph card sold for a stunning $1.11 million, including buyer’s premium, on Thursday.
It’s a record paid for a Skenes card — whose 2025 base salary is $875,000 — and the most expensive modern, non-Mike Trout baseball card. A 1-of-1 Trout rookie card sold for $3.9 million in August 2020, then the most expensive sports card of all time.
The buyer’s identity is currently unknown. The card was sold via Fanatics Collect.
The 1-of-1 numbered card with an on-card autograph includes a patch Skenes wore on his Pirates uniform during his major league debut, a conceit that MLB exclusive trading card licensee Topps developed and introduced for the 2023 season.
Pre-Skenes, the most paid for one was $150,000 in a private sale for Anthony Volpe‘s last summer. Jackson Holiday‘s MLB debut patch autograph card sold for $198,000, including buyer’s premium, in Thursday’s auction.
The Skenes factor — the National League’s All-Star Game starting pitcher, a Cy Young finalist and Rookie of the Year in 2024 — spawned a chase rarely seen for a modern sports card, baseball or otherwise. Last Christmas, an 11-year-old Dodgers fan from Los Angeles (the family has chosen to remain anonymous) pulled the Skenes redemption card from his lone present.
The Pirates offered a bounty, including 30 years of season tickets, a meet-and-greet with Skenes, two signed jerseys and a number of private PNC Park and spring training tours and experiences in exchange for the card. Skenes’ girlfriend and LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne offered to host whoever pulled the card for a Pirates game in her suite; Seth Meyers, host of “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” also offered a VIP experience just to see the card.
But the family turned it down. They started talking with auction houses in early January and chose Fanatics Collect. Kevin Lenane, Fanatics’ Marketplace vice president, flew to Texas to personally collect the Skenes card.
“This was complicated by the fact that the family was evacuated from where they were in Los Angeles multiple times,” Lenane said. “I got the card from Topps in Texas and brought it to the family out there then the following day graded it for them [with card grader PSA] and brought it back to New York.”
On the flight to California, the pilot found out about Lenane’s heavily insured cargo, tucked away in a protective case.
“I discreetly shared it with him, [and] he wanted a picture,” said Lenane, the former president of PSA, an authentication and grading service. “I honestly felt like Ed McMahon, bringing this check to an excited, modest Southern California family. A lot of times with larger items, you’ll spent a bunch of money and make a bunch of money; in this case, the family bought one box of cards for a few hundred bucks, and this is the outcome. It was a pleasure to be able to bring it to them.”
The card also caused a pileup at Fanatics’ Super Bowl LIX party in February to look at the card, which was encased on a wall. Fanatics Collect CEO Nick Bell said the viewing scene “felt a little like the Mona Lisa” because of the line of people who wanted to take a peek at the rare collectible.
The 11-year-old who pulled the card is a fan of Shohei Ohtani but is still looking forward to talking with Skenes, a meeting Fanatics plans to facilitate down the road, Lenane said.
Bell said he can’t recall a time since he joined the company that there has been such fervor over a card.
“I’ve had more calls and questions about the Skenes card than any other card we’ve sold on Fanatics,” he said. “And that was true within five, 10 minutes of [the card going to auction] being announced. This is the most notable card ever in terms of our impression tracking on social media.”
Fanatics Collectibles is based in Los Angeles, and Bell said all Fanatics Collect proceeds will go toward L.A. fire relief. Fanatics has also supported relief efforts with LA Strong merchandise.
The family told Fanatics the sale will send their 11-year-old and his brother to college.
“Whatever they have in mind for their college, they’re going to split down the middle as a savings,” Lenane said. “There’s some small amount set aside for cards, but it’s tiny compared to the college bill. The vast majority is going into college-type savings plans.”
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Sports
‘Our tradition to is to be untraditional’: Inside the lifecycle of an Oregon uniform
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4 hours agoon
September 26, 2025By
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EUGENE, Ore. — Inside the Marcus Mariota Performance Center, history dangles from wire hangers.
The glitz and glamour surrounding Oregon football is not immediately apparent. This is a practical place — a dimly lit, long hallway inside the second floor of the equipment room furnished with gray built-in closets — created not as a way to showcase, but rather to store the very thing that has become synonymous with the Ducks: their vast array of fabrics, colors and prints.
Among a sea of roughly 800 jerseys, there’s nearly every shade of green — from neon to emerald to forest to army. Here, black or white never look boring, and the yellow used over the years ranges from a Gatorade-colored hue to Cal gold. Splashes of pink, gray, brown, orange, chrome and blue complete the synthetic rainbow.
On this Saturday afternoon following Oregon’s win over Oklahoma State, football equipment administrator Kenny Farr thumbs through pages of dri-fit material and mesh as if flipping through a scrapbook. Every jersey has a story, every color and design a reason for existing at the time as well as an inevitable association that depends on something the style cannot control.
“Some of our best uniforms we’ve ever worn, we lost the games,” Farr said. “It’s hard to mention those, because they looked good, but we didn’t win the game. So it kind of goes down as a jersey I’ll try to forget about and move on to the next.”
Farr isn’t the man behind the jerseys, the designs or even the final decisions of what combinations make it out onto the field. But over the past 15 years, Farr has become a key cog in the enterprise that is Oregon’s uniforms. His role is part manager, part craftsman, part custodian and collector, as well.
“Kenny is the godfather of Oregon football uniforms,” said Quinn Van Horne, one of the senior designers of Oregon’s latest generation of uniforms.
Throughout the past 2½ decades, as Oregon has cycled through nine different versions of its uniforms, nearly 50 iterations and countless more combinations, the fascination over its attire and the ripple effects it has caused inside and outside the program continues. While some teams have rarely wavered from their classic designs and colors over the years, the Ducks have pushed the envelope, creating a unique energy around their ensembles that attracts players and prompts other schools to try and emulate them.
“We don’t have the tradition that Ohio State or USC or Notre Dame or some of those blue bloods have,” Farr said. “So how do you counteract that? Well, you just go full steam ahead the other direction. Our tradition is to be untraditional; we’re going to always push the edge.”
BEFORE THERE WERE so many permutations of Oregon jerseys, before the well-oiled system that produces at least one new uniform every season and a brand-new set of designs every three years was set in place, the concept began with a simple question.
“How do you make a duck look cool?”
Rick Bakas was working for Nike in the mid-to-late 1990s under a subdivision called Team Sports, dedicated to apparel for professional and college teams.
Bakas, alongside a team of fellow designers who were overseen by Nike creative director — and father of Quinn — Todd Van Horne, had just redesigned the Denver Broncos’ uniforms. The success of that redesign, as well as the momentum Oregon created after its appearances in the 1995 Rose Bowl and the 1996 Cotton Bowl (the first game in which Oregon wore all Nike) led to founder Phil Knight and a cadre of Oregon alumni, including longtime Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, tasking Van Horne and his team with a mission: remake the Oregon Ducks.
As he did nearly every year, Bakas attended the Detroit Auto Show in search of inspiration. There, painted across the chassis of a concept car, Bakas found the key that unlocked everything: a type of paint called ChromaFlair, which gave off a sheen that changed colors.
“I was eating a sandwich out there by the lake, and I was feeding some bread to a mallard out there,” Bakas said. “I was looking at its head, and I was like, ‘That paint looks like this mallard’s head.'”
Bakas brought some of those green swatches of the ChromaFlair paint back to Oregon, took them into a studio and pulled out the darkest and the lightest possible versions; those became the core colors of the concept he and the team presented to Knight.
“It’s amazing how much that helped keep that futuristic feel as we got into the ‘O’ design,” Bakas said. “The project really gave us a chance to marry the two together where we could think about the entire head to toe, how everything was going to look.”
Van Horne believes that even though the color-changing helmets were one of the most important elements of the redesign, they wouldn’t have been complete without the iconic “O” — its inner outline shaped to replicate Hayward Field, Oregon’s track and field stadium, and the outer one mimicking the outline of Autzen Stadium.
The creator of that “O” logo remains in dispute — Van Horne credits Hatfield with the idea, while Bakas says it was his own — but there is no debate about its impact. When the Ducks walked out onto the field to open the 1999 season sporting new colors, with the brand-new “O” on their green ChromaFlair helmets, the paradigm of uniforms shifted.
“The players loved it,” Bakas said. “They were coming from yellow and green with a duck on loose-fitting jerseys. What we gave them was super futuristic, and they absolutely ate it up.”
FARR’S OFFICE PHONE had been ringing. Oregon had just lost 42-20 to Ohio State in the 2014 national championship game while wearing a uniform combination that had not yet been featured that season: white jersey, black numbers and lettering, gray pants and a white helmet with silver wings.
“It looked great, but we didn’t win the game,” Farr said. “I had about 15 voicemails on my line the next morning, the next couple of days, of people blaming me, ‘We should have worn green! Why didn’t we wear green?’ And in my mind, I’m thinking, ‘We could have worn any color. I don’t know if we were going to tackle Ezekiel Elliot any better.'”
While it was coach Mike Bellotti who welcomed the original redesign, it was not until the arrival of Chip Kelly in the late 2000s and through 2012 that Oregon’s sartorial flair truly matched its fast and furious style of play. More uniform combos and a 46-7 record under Kelly supercharged a frenzy, not just around the team’s on-field success, but also around its next iterations of uniforms.
“Winning on a national stage helped so much,” Van Horne said. “That’s when we really dialed up the notion of looking different every game and different combinations and working with the athletes on scripting [uniforms] and even scripting the fans.” It all led to the notion of a uniform release as an event that both Oregon fans and even college football enthusiasts speculated about. The result was an insatiable desire for a wow factor to go with every drop.
“Fans’ expectations are so high for something new and cool, like you’re going to have some groundbreaking uniform that’s never been done before every single game,” Farr said. “But that’s not reality. I would say the last probably six or seven years is really where I got the sense of there’s some weeks where some fans are disappointed because they’re expecting us to have a helmet or a jersey with LED lights in it, and we didn’t do that.”
Farr has found that sometimes, more is less, and most Ducks fans will notice small splashes just as much as they will fixate on what they think of a certain jersey-pant combination.
Sometimes, the splash can be a custom cleat, like the Ducks did last season for the Rose Bowl, or what they’re doing against Penn State this week with exclusive glow-in-the-dark cleats, gloves and accessories. Often, Farr looks to the helmet — the only piece of the outfit he can customize on a weekly basis — as a way to add something new, even if it means an inordinate amount of work for his staff of one assistant and roughly 16 students.
Game 5 uniform for @oregonfootball: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕪’𝕤 ℝ𝕚𝕟𝕘𓂀💍
– ⚫️⚪️⚫️ for the 3rd year in a row, 6th time ever
– 2nd yr in a row that the black lids make their szn debut in week 5
– 1st 🦆 uni to 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 feature glow in the dark cleats, gloves, accessories#GoDucks pic.twitter.com/DbENrpW1Cv
— Jonah Henderson (@JonahNHenderson) September 25, 2025
When Oregon faced Wisconsin in the 2020 Rose Bowl and Farr had to reuse a uniform combination, he opted to tweak the chrome helmets with green tonal wings that he painted on to match the face mask. As the famous San Gabriel mountain sunset struck its pose during the game, the helmets reflected it perfectly.
“It ended up being one of the best things I’ve ever done,” Farr said. “Then we won the game. So, it’s iconic right around here. But if we would’ve lost the game, people would be like, ‘Ah, we didn’t have a new uniform.'”
Farr is now used to that pressure, in large part because he knows it’s not his vision that ultimately matters. In fact, Farr has, in the past, been overruled on a design he didn’t love only to see it shine.
“We wore one at Washington, I want to say four or five years ago, where it was a yellow helmet, yellow gloves and yellow cleats, but it was all white,” Farr said. And I was like, ‘This is looking stupid, and this is going to look terrible.’ We got on the field and people thought it looked great. So they like to give me a hard time about that.”
In the end, the final fit comes down to those who actually wear the jerseys.
TEZ JOHNSON WAS playing the part of lobbyist to no avail. The Oregon wide receiver, four of his teammates and Farr all gathered early last year to make the all-important decision: What were the Ducks going to wear for 2024, and when?
Farr had already received samples of every one of the five base uniforms that made up the “Generation O” class of kits from Van Horne Brands — helmets, jerseys, base layers, socks, cleats and gloves — and had them ready for players to see.
With five to pick from, players have to get creative. Farr does, too. When EA Sports’ college football game made its return last year, Farr was able to get EA to preload all of Oregon’s uniform combinations from its latest set onto the game so current players could try different blends they might be able to replicate in real life.
Johnson was adamant: Oregon should wear an all-black combination against Washington in the season finale. His teammates disagreed. The black getup was their best look of the year, and it should be worn earlier, specifically against Ohio State.
“It was very hotly debated for way too long,” Farr said. “The rest of the guys kind of overrode his vote. He was upset about it — I was like, ‘That’s all part of why you’re on the committee, but you’re only 20% of the vote, man.’ I totally leave it up to them.”
Farr has conducted this meeting for several years now, as a way to democratize the process. Every year, Farr selects a group of players, typically upperclassmen who have shown interest, to form a committee made up of an odd number so there’s never a tie. Over the course of two to three hours, players debate their choices, weighing things like opponent, where the game falls in their schedule and even weather.
“It’s got to be guys that are opinionated and not afraid to voice their opinions, because that’s what you want, you want a healthy dialogue,” Farr said. “For the players that are part of it, it’s kind of a badge of honor.”
Once players have finalized their choices with Farr’s assistance, he will lay out the scripting in a look book and show head coach Dan Lanning before the spring game for approval. Finalizing the looks well in advance of the season helps Farr organize the high volume of inventory he has to line up. Going off-script is rare, but not impossible. Two years ago, with undefeated Colorado visiting for a highly anticipated matchup, the Ducks changed to a different uniform combination.
Now, with the postseason potentially adding four extra games on top of the conference championship, Farr & Co. have to think beyond the regular season and a single bowl appearance. In the first season of the 12-team College Football Playoff last year, once Oregon knew whether it would be the away or home team, Farr texted committee members to get them thinking about their options for a quarterfinal look so Farr could get a combination set and organize the inventory in time
When you have one set of uniforms for three seasons of games, a repeat, especially in the playoffs, is almost inevitable. Even if players love a particular combination and want to run it back, Farr will always try to find a way to add a special twist.
“My whole argument is let’s not be different, just to be different,” Farr said. “We don’t have 12 helmets, 12 jerseys or 12 pairs of pants. It’s the different combinations and tweaks you can make that keep the looks unique.”
THE DUCKS MAY not have a different uniform for every game, but the fact that it feels like they do, or that it feels like they could if they wanted to, is a unique feature of Nike’s influence.
According to Farr, while Nike sponsors many programs across the country, it tiers schools, and that determines access to perks such as special releases and custom apparel, with Tier 1 being the highest — that is, unless you’re Oregon.
“[Nike] always told us,” Farr said, “we were Tier 0.”
“When I got to Oregon, I thought the practice jersey was the game jersey,” said wide receiver Evan Stewart, who transferred from Texas A&M. “It’s just different here. You look good, feel good, you play good.”
While players get to test upcoming fabrics and jersey materials that may not come out until 2028 (Oregon has been in the current Nike Fuse chassis that just came to the NFL since 2019), Nike gets to use Oregon athletes as wear test subjects (often it’s the uniform selection committee who gets first dibs) who provide feedback on the products. And while the Van Hornes and Nike are technically behind the designs, part of their process is getting input from players.
“Sometimes we don’t talk to players about what you want to look like,” Quinn Van Horne said. “It’s, ‘Hey if Oregon was a car, what kind of car would it be? What’s your favorite superhero movie? What kind of music are you listening to? When you walk out on the field, what do you see and what do you want to picture? What do you want to feel like?'”
It’s this system that will constantly evolve as players with different perspectives cycle in and out of the program that Todd Van Horne believes will keep Oregon’s well of uniform ideas stocked for years to come.
Perhaps nothing embodies that mindset more than the fact that Oregon commits to having at least one entirely new, never-before-seen uniform design each season.
Dubbed the “energy moment,” this sixth uniform combination has, over the years, run the gamut and largely been led by players. From a bright pink helmet with black jerseys in 2013, to a pan-Polynesian heritage-themed “Ohana” uniform in 2020, to a “Stomp Out Cancer” jersey in 2017 designed by cancer survivors as well as working on a “Heroes” bright yellow fit with Lanning’s wife, Sauphia (who is eight years cancer-free after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma),last season, the energy moment jersey is where Oregon and Nike often flex their muscles. A Stormtrooper look? Yes. A Lewis-and-Clark-inspired combo? Why not?
“While we want to do some throwbacks and some throwbacks need to be done, it’s like, what’s the next thing?” Farr said. “How are we going to evolve?”
There’s another committee that Farr oversees of younger Oregon players who are part of the idea process for what the energy moment jersey will be in 2026 and 2027. This year’s edition had to be approved by Nike 18 months before it saw the field against Oregon State; it featured a charcoal black and gold look with white helmets dubbed “Shoe Duck” that honors Knight.
“We talk so much about when Oregon comes out with a really big uniform, we’re extra stressed,” Quinn Van Horne said. “We really want to make sure they win, because we know what a win does to cement a uniform and its foundation.”
For Farr, the Van Hornes and Bakas, being part of establishing or furthering Oregon’s aesthetic identity is important and an inextricable part of Nike’s history over the past 25 years. But the goal, from the beginning, has always gone beyond that.
“We intentionally said it, we’re doing all this to win a national title and the uniform [redesign] was part of that too,” Bakas said. “That’s the Nike mentality — you want to be the best. The goal was to win a national championship, and the wheels were set in motion back then. The intent was there, but I didn’t think it would take 30 years or 25 years to get to this point. I thought we would’ve won one by now.”
THE BUILDING THAT houses them is named after him, but inside the hallway of hanging jerseys, you won’t find any sporting Mariota’s name.
Players who finish their senior season at the school are given a framed jersey before their last home game. Because the jerseys are technically state property, should a player want any of his other Oregon jerseys back, the price is $50 — plus shipping and handling.
Mariota bought all of his once he made it to the NFL. Not everyone else has, though. It’s why even though that closet holds close to 1,000 jerseys, there are still 600 to 800 more sitting in storage on the floor below.
“There’s guys that have left after their five years, and maybe your freshman year was the full reset, and then three years in you got another full reset,” Farr said. “So we’ve had guys that have, at the end of their career, had 40 or 50 jerseys.”
After years of simply taking old jerseys and selling them at a school surplus sale, Farr decided on a different approach. When the performance center was built in 2016, he took the jerseys from storage in rail cars to this room, where he organized them in alphabetical order. You never know who is going to swing through Eugene one of these days wanting to reunite with their polyester past.
“For every Marcus, there’s 119 other guys on that team that maybe weren’t the star player, or maybe when they graduated they couldn’t afford to buy all their jerseys,” Farr said. “So maybe they forgot about it or whatever the situation is, and they’ll come back and they’ll just ask me, and I get to tell them ‘Yeah, here they are.'”
Farr got to do just that as recently as the game against the Cowboys this season.
Cornerback Jaylin Davies was a freshman at Oregon in 2021 before transferring to UCLA for three seasons, eventually landing with Oklahoma State. Davies and Farr greeted each other after the game on the field. Though Davies had only recorded a few snaps as a freshman, he wanted his piece of Oregon history.
“You still have my jersey?” Davies asked Farr.
“I do,” Farr told him. “Call me after the season is over.”
Farr was happy to oblige. After all, that’s one more jersey he can take off a hanger and send on its way, just in time for another to take its place.
Sports
West Virginia, Boise State lead best uniforms from college football Week 5
Published
4 hours agoon
September 26, 2025By
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Sometimes, to go forward, you have to go back.
After a Week 4 loss on the road against the Kansas Jayhawks, the West Virginia Mountaineers are looking to notch their first Big 12 win of the season against the Utah Utes.
And West Virginia has an ace in the hole for that matchup with the Utes: new throwback uniforms.
Unveiled in May, the vintage look’s inspiration dates back to 1965. Its distinguishing features include a twist on the school’s usual color palette — a muted “old gold” hue replaces the Mountaineers’ traditional yellow, while light blue makes an appearance on the uniform’s helmets.
The light blue color fills in an outline of the state of West Virginia, with “WVU” superimposed on the state’s outline in an old-school, bolded font. The old gold elements are paired with a simple, navy blue base jersey.
Old gold.
Light blue.Brought 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲.#HailWV pic.twitter.com/OGOjtRzi3o
— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) May 5, 2025
The Mountaineers aren’t the only school bringing the heat with uniforms this weekend. Here are the best threads from around the college football world in Week 5.
The Boise State Broncos are donning lids touched up with unparalleled detail — an unsurprising characteristic, given the helmets were hand-painted.
Named “The Front Porch of Idaho helmet,” the Broncos’ headgear for the weekend pays homage to the school’s location in the capital of Idaho. One side of the lid features a bronco charging forward, while the other shows the Idaho state capitol building. Albertsons Stadium and its famous blue field make an appearance on the back, orange end zone included.
Representing 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 #BleedBlue | #BuiltDifferent pic.twitter.com/81AntuTxSV
— Boise State Football (@BroncoSportsFB) September 25, 2025
It’s a given that the Oregon Ducks will bring out a memorable uniform combination for any big game, but its Week 5 threads for its game against the Penn State Nittany Lions are notable for a particularly unique reason: a logo.
Playing in Penn State’s iconic annual White Out game atmosphere, the Ducks seem to be leaning into the intense nature of the road environment. In addition to a white jersey, Oregon’s threads for Saturday night will also include an alternate motif of a seemingly mummified duck, making an appearance on gloves and other accessories.
Prepare and Beware.
Game 5 uni combo. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/XcsgWWwfCV
— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) September 25, 2025
Blue is the color of the week for the Old Dominion Monarchs, whose uniforms for Week 5 will feature contrasting shades.
The helmets and pants will be a lighter powder blue, while the jerseys contain a navy base. The light blue shade will also serve as the outline for the numbers and trimming on the jerseys.
chartin’ our course ⚓️ #ReignOn | #BeTheReason pic.twitter.com/7lO4WdXDzg
— ODU Football (@ODUFootball) September 25, 2025
With one major upset this season already under its belt, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are looking to add another to the ledger this Saturday against the Tennessee Volunteers.
The color of the Bulldogs’ uniforms will match the home crowd, which has been asked to make Week 5 a whiteout in Starkville. Mississippi State will be going with an icy white look itself, highlighted by a helmet that features a maroon, retro-style interlocking “MSU” logo on a white base.
Ice Meets Iron. pic.twitter.com/MWf1tS0iU1
— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) September 25, 2025
An appropriately patriotic element will spice up the East Carolina Pirates‘ look for its Thursday clash with the Army Black Knights, with the school donning military appreciation uniforms for the service academy matchup.
While the Pirates’ purple jerseys and white pants are standard fare, the helmets this week are distinctive. East Carolina will add a splash of red, white and blue to the lids, with an American flag superimposed on the Pirates’ usual skull and crossbones motif.
The Military Appreciation look for Thursday 🏴☠️ pic.twitter.com/1AgTjtWE9R
— ECU Football (@ECUPiratesFB) September 23, 2025
Sports
MLB playoff tracker: Dodgers, Mariners clinch divisions — what else is at stake?
Published
7 hours agoon
September 26, 2025By
admin
The final weekend of the MLB season is here — and there’s still plenty to play for!
The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs have both clinched postseason berths, with the Brewers also taking home the NL Central title. The Philadelphia Phillies have locked up the NL East title, and the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their fifth straight NL West title on Thursday. The New York Mets, clinging onto the final wild-card-spot, won their series against the Cubs this week and control their own destiny going into the final weekend, but the door is still open for the Cincinnati Reds — who won on Thursday afternoon — and Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL wild-card race.
In the AL, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first AL team to secure a playoff spot and the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners joined them days later. In the biggest twists of the 2025 season, the Cleveland Guardians have rocked the American League playoff picture with a September surge, emerging as a serious contender in both the AL Central and wild-card race: After winning their series against the Tigers this week, the Guardians are now tied with Detroit for the the AL Central lead.
Beyond division races, there are many storylines to watch as the regular season comes to an end and playoffs begin: Where do current playoff matchups stand? What games should you be paying attention to each day leading up to October? Who will be the next team to clinch a postseason berth? And what does the playoff schedule look like?
We have everything you need to know as the regular season hits the homestretch.
Key links: Full MLB standings | Wild-card standings
Who’s in?
The Brewers clinched the season’s first playoff spot for a second consecutive year on Sept. 13 and followed up by securing their third straight NL Central title. They earned a bye in the first round and are playing for the NL’s overall No. 1 seed.
The Phillies clinched a spot in the postseason on Sept. 14. With a win the following night, Philadelphia clinched the NL East title for the second straight year. On Wednesday, the Phils beat the Marlins to clinch a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the NLDS.
The Cubs clinched their spot in the postseason on Sept. 17 and will be making their first playoff appearance in a full-length season since 2018. They will face the Padres in the wild-card series.
With a win Thursday over the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers clinched the NL West title for the 12th time in the past 13 years. They will be the No. 3 seed in the NL and host the No. 6 seed in the wild-card series.
The Blue Jays became the first AL team to secure a postseason berth with a with over the Royals on Sunday. They are currently tied with the Yankees for first place in the AL East — the division winner will earn a bye.
The Padres clinched their fourth postseason trip in six years with a walk-off win over the Brewers on Monday. They will face the Cubs in the wild-card series.
The Yankees became the second AL team to clinch a playoff spot with a walk-off win over the White Sox on Tuesday. They are currently tied with the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East — the division winner will earn a bye.
The Mariners clinched their first postseason appearance since 2022 on Tuesday and, with a 9-2 win on Wednesday, won their first AL West crown since 2001. They earned a bye in the first round.
Who can clinch a playoff spot next?
Upcoming clinch possibilities:
-
The Red Sox can clinch a postseason berth Friday with a win OR an Astros loss
-
The Guardians can clinch a postseason berth Friday with a win OR an Astros loss
-
The Tigers can clinch a postseason berth as early as Friday with any combination of three Detroit wins and Astros losses
What are this October’s MLB playoff matchups as it stands now?
American League
Wild-card round: (6) Tigers at (3) Guardians, (5) Red Sox at (4) Yankees
ALDS: Tigers/Guardians vs. (2) Mariners, Red Sox/Yankees vs. (1) Blue Jays
National League
Wild-card round: (6) Mets at (3) Dodgers, (5) Padres at (4) Cubs
NLDS: Mets/Dodgers vs. (2) Phillies, Padres/Cubs vs. (1) Brewers
Tiebreaker scenarios
AL East teams
Toronto Blue Jays
Win tiebreaker: Mariners, Red Sox, Yankees
Lose tiebreaker: Guardians
New York Yankees
Win tiebreaker: Mariners
Lose tiebreaker: Blue Jays, Guardians, Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
Win tiebreaker: Astros, Guardians, Yankees
Lose tiebreaker: Blue Jays, Mariners
(Red Sox still have 3 games left vs. Tigers)
AL Central teams
Cleveland Guardians
Win tiebreaker: Astros, Tigers, Yankees, Blue Jays
Lose tiebreaker: Mariners, Red Sox
Detroit Tigers
Win tiebreaker: Astros
Lose tiebreaker: Guardians, Mariners
(Detroit still has 3 games left vs. Red Sox)
AL West teams
Seattle Mariners
Win tiebreaker: Tigers, Guardians, Red Sox
Lose tiebreaker: Blue Jays, Yankees
Houston Astros
Win tiebreaker: N/A
Lose tiebreaker: Guardians, Red Sox, Tigers
NL East teams
Philadelphia Phillies
Win tiebreaker: Dodgers
Lose tiebreaker: Brewers
New York Mets
Win tiebreaker: N/A
Lose tiebreaker: D-backs, Reds
(Mets would lose tiebreaker in 3-way tie with Reds and D-backs)
NL Central teams
Milwaukee Brewers
Win tiebreaker: Phillies
Lose tiebreaker: N/A
Chicago Cubs
Win tiebreaker: Dodgers
Lose tiebreaker: N/A
(Padres and Cubs tied season series, division record tiebreaker TBD)
Cincinnati Reds
Win tiebreaker: D-backs, Mets
Lose tiebreaker: N/A
(The Reds would win tiebreaker in 3-way tie with D-backs and Mets)
NL West teams
Los Angeles Dodgers
Win tiebreaker: Padres
Lose tiebreaker: Brewers, Cubs, Phillies
San Diego Padres
Win tiebreaker: N/A
Lose tiebreaker: Dodgers
(Padres and Cubs tied season series, division record tiebreaker TBD)
Arizona Diamondbacks
Win tiebreaker: Mets
Lose tiebreaker: Reds
(D-backs would lose tiebreaker in 3-way tie with Reds and Mets)
Breaking down the AL race
The Blue Jays are trying to hold for the AL’s No. 1 seed and division title. While Toronto sits atop the AL East, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are duking it out for wild-card seeding. And the Seattle Mariners separated themselves from the Houston Astros in a two-team AL West race to win their first division crown since 2001. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Guardians are going toe-to-toe with the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central while also playing themselves into a tight race for the final wild-card spot.
And what about when these teams get to the postseason? Here’s what their chances are for every round:
Breaking down the NL race
The Brewers were the first MLB team to seal its spot in October, and the Phillies — who then sealed an NL East title — clinched next. A group of contenders have separated themselves atop the NL standings with the New York Mets, Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds battling for the final playoff spot, and there is intrigue in the NL West as the Dodgers attempt to fend off the Padres for the division crown.
And what about when these teams get to the postseason? Here’s what their chances are for every round:
Game of the day
Looking for something to watch today? Here’s the baseball game with the biggest playoff implications:
Playoff schedule
Wild-card series
Best of three, all games at better seed’s stadium
Game 1: Tuesday, Sept. 30
Game 2: Wednesday, Oct. 1
Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 2*
Division series
Best of five
ALDS
Game 1: Saturday, Oct. 4
Game 2: Sunday, Oct. 5
Game 3: Tuesday, Oct. 7
Game 4: Wednesday, Oct. 8*
Game 5: Friday, Oct. 10*
NLDS
Game 1: Saturday, Oct. 4
Game 2: Monday, Oct. 6
Game 3: Wednesday, Oct. 8
Game 4: Thursday, Oct. 9*
Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 11*
League championship series
Best of seven
ALCS
Game 1: Sunday, Oct. 12
Game 2: Monday, Oct. 13
Game 3: Wednesday, Oct. 15
Game 4: Thursday, Oct. 16
Game 5: Friday, Oct. 17*
Game 6: Sunday, Oct. 19*
Game 7: Monday, Oct. 20*
NLCS
Game 1: Monday, Oct. 13
Game 2: Tuesday, Oct. 14
Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 16
Game 4: Friday, Oct. 17
Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 18*
Game 6: Monday, Oct. 20*
Game 7: Tuesday, Oct. 21*
World Series
Best of seven
Game 1: Friday, Oct. 24
Game 2: Saturday, Oct. 25
Game 3: Monday, Oct. 27
Game 4: Tuesday, Oct. 28
Game 5: Wednesday, Oct. 29*
Game 6: Friday, Oct. 31*
Game 7: Saturday, Nov. 1*
* If necessary
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