Major League Baseball Wild Card

In Major League Baseball (MLB), the wild card teams are the three teams in each of the two leagues (American and National) that qualify for the postseason despite failing to win their division; the three wild card teams in each league possess the three best winning percentages in their league after the league's three division winners. The wild card was first instituted in MLB in 1994, with one wild card team per league advancing to the Division Series in the postseason to face a division winner.

In 2012, the system was modified to add a second wild card team per league and pit each league's wild card teams against each other in a play-in game – the MLB Wild Card Game – the winner of which would then advance to the Division Series and play the team with the best record. The two teams with the best records outside of the division champions advanced to the wild card game. The two wild card teams could come out of the same division so there was no guarantee a team that came in second place in their division would make the playoffs.

The system was changed in 2022 to add a third wild card team from each league, along with replacing the play-in game with three-game series.