Major League Baseball Postseason Race Gets Huge Shakeup

It's hard to believe, but we're rapidly nearing the end of the 2025 Major League Baseball season. And with that, playoff races across the league are getting increasingly intense.

Friday was a surprisingly big day for several teams in the thick of the postseason race, potentially impacting the rest of the regular season, playoff seeding, and deep runs into October. 

The San Diego Padres, one of baseball's hottest teams in the second half of the season, lost one of their most important players to a potentially season-ending injury. Xander Bogaerts, San Diego's starting shortstop, fouled a ball off his foot against the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday. 

On Friday, ahead of their series against the Minnesota Twins, the Padres announced that Bogaerts had suffered a non-displaced fracture in his foot, almost certainly ending his regular season and putting his postseason roster spot in jeopardy. And he wasn't the only big-name player to see his season end.

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Walker Buehler. Photo: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

Walker Buehler Released By Boston Red Sox

Walker Buehler, who got the last out of the 2024 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers, was released by the Boston Red Sox on Friday after a disappointing season as a starter.

Buehler had struggled during the 2024 regular season after returning from yet another arm surgery, but the Red Sox believed that his postseason success demonstrated he still had potential left in the tank. This year though, has shown anything but. Buehler has a 5.45 ERA, with just 84 strikeouts in 112 innings.

His average fastball velocity, which was once nearly 97mph, has dipped to just 94.2, and his elite command has disappeared, with a 4.41 walks per nine rate. It's an ignominious end to what seemed to be an outstanding career, and it once again highlights the damage injuries can cause for pitchers. 

So what do both these moves mean for the playoffs?

Well, the Padres are near-locks to make the postseason, thanks to a significant lead over the Cincinnati Reds in the race for a wild card spot. But Bogaerts had been arguably their best offensive player for most of the past several months, and San Diego doesn't have a ready-made replacement at shortstop. San Diego is still hoping to secure a home wild card series, if not make a run at the NL West division title, and sit just a game behind the Chicago Cubs for the fourth seed.

This throws all of that into jeopardy. If Bogaerts is out for most, or all, of the playoffs, it's an even bigger loss. The Padres improved their offense at the deadline with Ryan O'Hearn and Ramon Laureano, but losing Bogaerts makes the lineup that much thinner. 

For Boston, it makes its already-thin rotation that much thinner. The Red Sox called up Payton Tolle ahead of Friday night's game, and he was excellent against the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

Sometimes, necessity is the mother of invention. While the Red Sox are also likely to make the playoffs, would they trust Tolle to make a postseason start? Buehler had a long October history. That's now gone. Maybe it won't matter. Or maybe it will.