List of American League Wild Card winners

This article is about American League teams that qualified for the postseason as wild cards. For Wild Card Game and Series results, see Wild Card Series.

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.^[1] The restructuring of both the American League and National League from two to three divisions each 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. As the 1994 postseason was canceled due to the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, 1995 was the first postseason with a wild card team.

American League Wild Card
Sport	Major League Baseball
League	American League
Established	1994 (1 team)
Expanded	2012 (2 teams) 2022 (3 teams)
Most times	8: Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees
Most recent	2024: Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals

Beginning in 2012, a second wild card team was added to each league.^[2] The two wild card teams in each league face each other in a one-game playoff, the Wild Card Game, with the winner advancing to meet the number one seed in the Division Series.

For the 2020 postseason only, the field expanded to include three second-place teams per division, followed by the wild card teams represented by the next two best records from each league.^[3] All eight teams played in a best-of-three Wild Card Series.^[3]

Starting in 2022, a third wild card team was added to each league. The lowest-seeded wild card team (#6 seed) would then face the lowest-seeded division winner (#3 seed) in the best-of-three Wild Card round, with the remaining two Wild Card teams (#4 and #5 seed) squaring off in the other bracket. The Division Series will then have the top-seed play the fourth-fifth winner, while the runner-up plays the third-sixth winner. The brackets remain fixed, with no re-seeding. ^[4]

AL Wild Card qualifiers by year

Through the 2021 postseason, there have been a total of 37 AL wild card teams (one each season during 1995–2011, and two each season since 2012). The AL East has produced 24, the AL Central five, and the AL West eight. The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees have been a wild card qualifier a record eight times each.

Through the 2023 postseason, three AL wild card teams have gone on win the World Series (Anaheim in 2002, Boston in 2004, and Texas in 2023), two teams won the AL pennant but lost the World Series (Detroit in 2006 and Kansas City in 2014), and eight other teams won a division series but lost the championship series, most recently the Yankees in 2017.

Year	Winner	Record	%	Playoff Results
Original Format
1995	New York Yankees	79–65	.549	Lost ALDS (Mariners) 3–2
1996	Baltimore Orioles	88–74	.543	Won ALDS (Indians) 3–1 Lost ALCS (Yankees) 4–1
1997	New York Yankees	96–66	.593	Lost ALDS (Indians) 3–2
1998	Boston Red Sox	92–70	.568	Lost ALDS (Indians) 3–1
1999	Boston Red Sox	94–68	.580	Won ALDS (Indians) 3–2 Lost ALCS (Yankees) 4–1
2000	Seattle Mariners	91–71	.562	Won ALDS (White Sox) 3–0 Lost ALCS (Yankees) 4–2
2001	Oakland Athletics	102–60	.630	Lost ALDS (Yankees) 3–2
2002	Anaheim Angels	99–63	.611	Won ALDS (Yankees) 3–1 Won ALCS (Twins) 4–1 Won World Series (Giants) 4–3
2003	Boston Red Sox	95–67	.586	Won ALDS (Athletics) 3–2 Lost ALCS (Yankees) 4–3
2004	Boston Red Sox	98–64	.605	Won ALDS (Angels) 3–0 Won ALCS (Yankees) 4–3 Won World Series (Cardinals) 4–0
2005	Boston Red Sox	95–67	.586	Lost ALDS (White Sox) 3–0
2006	Detroit Tigers	95–67	.586	Won ALDS (Yankees) 3–1 Won ALCS (Athletics) 4–0 Lost World Series (Cardinals) 4–1
2007	New York Yankees	94–68	.580	Lost ALDS (Indians) 3–1
2008	Boston Red Sox	95–67	.586	Won ALDS (Angels) 3–1 Lost ALCS (Rays) 4–3
2009	Boston Red Sox	95–67	.586	Lost ALDS (Angels) 3–0
2010	New York Yankees	95–67	.586	Won ALDS (Twins) 3–0 Lost ALCS (Rangers) 4–2
2011	Tampa Bay Rays	91–71	.562	Lost ALDS (Rangers) 3–1
Expanded Format
2012	Texas Rangers	93–69	.574	Lost ALWC (Orioles)
	Baltimore Orioles	93–69	.574	Won ALWC (Rangers) Lost ALDS (Yankees) 3–2
2013	Cleveland Indians	92–70	.568	Lost ALWC (Rays)
	Tampa Bay Rays	92–71	.564	Won ALWC (Indians) Lost ALDS (Red Sox) 3–1
2014	Kansas City Royals	89–73	.549	Won ALWC (Athletics) Won ALDS (Angels) 3–0 Won ALCS (Orioles) 4–0 Lost World Series (Giants) 4–3
	Oakland Athletics	88–74	.543	Lost ALWC (Royals)
2015	New York Yankees	87–75	.537	Lost ALWC (Astros)
	Houston Astros	86–76	.531	Won ALWC (Yankees) Lost ALDS (Royals) 3–2
2016	Toronto Blue Jays	89–73	.549	Won ALWC (Orioles) Won ALDS (Rangers) 3–0 Lost ALCS (Indians) 4–1
	Baltimore Orioles	89–73	.549	Lost ALWC (Blue Jays)
2017	New York Yankees	91–71	.562	Won ALWC (Twins) Won ALDS (Indians) 3–2 Lost ALCS (Astros) 4–3
	Minnesota Twins	85–77	.525	Lost ALWC (Yankees)
2018	New York Yankees	100–62	.617	Won ALWC (Athletics) Lost ALDS (Red Sox) 3–1
	Oakland Athletics	97–65	.599	Lost ALWC (Yankees)
2019	Oakland Athletics	97–65	.599	Lost ALWC (Rays)
	Tampa Bay Rays	96–66	.593	Won ALWC (Athletics) Lost ALDS (Astros) 3–2
2020	Chicago White Sox	35–25	.583	Lost ALWC (Athletics) 2–1
	Toronto Blue Jays	32–28	.533	Lost ALWC (Rays) 2–0
2021	Boston Red Sox	92–70	.568	Won ALWC (Yankees) Won ALDS (Rays) 3–1 Lost ALCS (Astros) 4–2
	New York Yankees	92–70	.568	Lost ALWC (Red Sox)
2022	Toronto Blue Jays	92–70	.568	Lost ALWC (Mariners) 2–0
	Seattle Mariners	90–72	.556	Won ALWC (Blue Jays) 2–0 Lost ALDS (Astros) 3–0
	Tampa Bay Rays	86–76	.531	Lost ALWC (Guardians) 2–0
2023	Tampa Bay Rays	99–63	.611	Lost ALWC (Rangers) 2–0
	Texas Rangers	90–72	.556	Won ALWC (Rays) 2–0 Won ALDS (Orioles) 3–0 Won ALCS (Astros) 4–3 Won World Series (Diamondbacks) 4–1
	Toronto Blue Jays	89–73	.549	Lost ALWC (Twins) 2–0
2024	Baltimore Orioles	91–71	.562	Lost ALWC (Royals) 2–0
	Kansas City Royals	86–76	.531	Won ALWC (Orioles) 2–0 Lost ALDS (Yankees) 3–1
	Detroit Tigers	86–76	.531	Won ALWC (Astros) 2–0 Lost ALDS (Guardians) 3–2

Most AL Wild Card appearances

Rank	Team	Total	Year(s)
T-1	Boston Red Sox	8	1998–1999, 2003–2005, 2008–2009, 2021
T-1	New York Yankees	8	1995, 1997, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2017–2018, 2021
3	Tampa Bay Rays	5	2011, 2013, 2019, 2022–2023
T-4	Baltimore Orioles	4	1996, 2012, 2016, 2024
T-4	Oakland Athletics	4	2001, 2014, 2018–2019
T-4	Toronto Blue Jays	4	2016, 2020, 2022–2023
T-7	Detroit Tigers	2	2006, 2024
T-7	Kansas City Royals	2	2014, 2024
T-7	Seattle Mariners	2	2000, 2022
T-7	Texas Rangers	2	2012, 2023
T-11	Minnesota Twins	1	2017
T-11	Chicago White Sox	1	2020
T-11	Cleveland Guardians	1	2013
T-11	Houston Astros	1	2015
T-11	Los Angeles Angels	1	2002

Notes:

• The Los Angeles Angels were known as the Anaheim Angels during 1997–2004.
• The Houston Astros competed in the National League before 2013.
• The Cleveland Guardians were known as the Cleveland Indians before 2022.

See also

• Baseball portal

• American League Division Series
• List of National League Wild Card winners
• Major League Baseball division winners
• Wild card (sports)#Major League Baseball
• Wild card (sports)#Record disparities

References

1. Jayson Stark (March 2, 2012). "The new MLB postseason". ESPN.com.
2. "Year In Review : 2012 American League". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
3. "MLB expands playoffs to 16 teams for shortened 2020 season, adds best-of-three Wild Card Series". CBSSports.com. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
4. "Everything you need to know about '22 season". MLB.com. Retrieved 2022-03-10.