We made it, everyone: the 2021 MLB Playoffs are finally here. Everywhere you look, there are great storylines waiting to unfold, and when it comes to predicting a World Series champion, the field feels as open as ever.
But that doesn't mean we're not going to make some rock-solid predictions anyway. With the Wild Card Games starting on Tuesday night, let's take a stab at how these playoffs will shake out.
2021 MLB playoff predictions
American League
Despite the collective groans and eye rolls that will come from the Red Sox-Yankees AL Wild Card Game and it no doubt being treated as something mythical, bigger than even the World Series somehow, it is ultimately a great scenario for baseball to have these two hated rivals play each other in the one-game playoff. There probably won't be any bench-clearing brawls in this one, but hey, we can dream.
Either way, a Red Sox-Yankees one-game playoff is best-case scenario stuff, but Boston and New York are clearly inferior teams to the other heavy hitters of the AL. While Tampa Bay put together its best regular season in franchise history, the Astros are looking like a real dark horse to win it all. Not only do they have a wealth of postseason experience, but they've got an intimidating roster that has the highest batting average and OPS of any team in the playoffs to go along with the fourth-best team ERA (3.76) in the American League.
The Astros will be facing off against the White Sox, who have an incredible offense and pitching staff of their own. Chicago had the second-best team ERA in the AL this year (3.73) and scored the fifth-most runs in the league. Houston certainly exceeded expectations this season, and the rest of the MLB world no doubt wants to see this team fail because of its scandalous past, which likely only fuels the Astros more. With the amount of veteran experience on this roster, it wouldn't be surprising at all to see them in the World Series.
Predictions:
Wild Card: Yankees over Red Sox
ALDS: Rays over Yankees; Astros over White Sox
ALCS: Astros over Rays
The National League
The Giants and Dodgers had an incredible race to the finish for the NL West crown, and the Dodgers' prize for a 106-win regular season is a date with the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Wild Card Game, with San Francisco waiting in the NLDS should they advance.
No team has probably ever been so happy to finish with the third-best record than the Milwaukee Brewers, who face off against a surprising Atlanta Braves team that really turned it on in the second half of the year. That being said, the Brewers have such an incredible pitching staff — even without the now-injured Devin Williams — that it would be hard to see them not advancing to the NLCS.
And magical season aside for the Giants, the Dodgers just have so much talent that it's hard to not see that shining through over the course of the postseason — they just need to beat the hottest team in MLB first.
Predictions:
Wild Card: Dodgers over Cardinals
NLDS: Dodgers over Giants; Brewers over Braves
NLCS: Dodgers over Brewers
The World Series
Just think how lucky we might be to get a rematch of the 2017 World Series, when the Astros beat the Dodgers in what we know now is a particularly controversial and “tainted” title, if you want to go so far to call it that. The bad blood between these two teams is no doubt still there, which would definitely add a spicy new layer to the Fall Classic.
Prediction:
The Dodgers get their revenge on the Astros and repeat as champions, putting to rest any criticism of only managing to win it all during the shortened 2020 MLB season.
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