The Cleveland Guardians left themselves one day of the MLB regular season to take a deep breath.
They’ll play their season finale on Sunday in Kansas City against the Royals, but a playoff berth won’t be on the line. Neither will the AL Central Division.
The Guardians clinched a playoff spot on Thursday.
Then they clinched the AL Central on Saturday night.
They’ve gotten two clubhouse parties in three days, and now they can relax. Sunday’s game doesn’t mean anything for the standings.
Are Guardians in the Playoffs?
Yes, the Guardians are officially in the playoffs, and they’ve done it as AL Central Division champions.
They will finish ahead of the White Sox in the division no matter what happens on Sunday.
They’ve also secured the AL’s No. 2 seed, behind just the Tampa Bay Rays. With that comes a first-round bye.
The Guardians won’t have to play at all in the Wild Card Round. They skip ahead straight to the Divisional Series, which is a huge achievement and increases the chances of playing deep into October.
They also know which series to watch — the 3-seed vs. 6-seed in the AL.
The 3-seed isn’t actually determined yet, though. That’ll come down to whichever of the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers win the AL West Division. They enter Sunday with the same record, playing different teams, and the Astros hold the tiebreaker.
The 6-seed is the White Sox, so the Guardians could see a divisional foe in the Divisional Series.
Regardless, it’s a historic path here by Cleveland.
How Guardians Made Baseball History
No one gets into the playoffs quite like Cleveland: They’re the comeback kids.
For the second season in a row, they faced a sizable deficit to come back in the AL Central Division.
For the second season in a row, they made up the gap.
Last year, it was the Detroit Tigers they chased down.
This year, it was the White Sox.
MLB Network’s Sarah Langs shared that it’s the first time a team has made up six-game gaps with 125 games to play in consecutive seasons to win the division:
The Guardians are the first team to win division titles in consecutive years despite being at least 6 GB thru 125 games or more in both (divisions since 1969)
h/t @EliasSports https://t.co/1LfeKMgKsh
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 27, 2026
Langs shares in a follow-up post that the Minnesota Twins are the only other franchise to even do that twice, but they did it four years apart in the ’00s.
The fact that the Guardians have done it twice in a row is absolutely remarkable, but at this point, Cleveland isn’t surprising themselves. This is simply what they do.
How Guardians Making Playoffs Made Baseball History