2022 MLB Playoffs: Wild Card, World Series, Full Postseason Dates Announced

MLB rolled out its schedule for the 2022 playoffs, which will begin Oct. 7 with the wild-card series.

Here are the dates for each of the four rounds:

• Wild-Card Series: Oct. 7-9
• Division Series: Oct. 11-17 
• League Championship Series: Oct. 18-26 
• World Series: Oct. 28-Nov. 5

MLB introduced the Wild Card Game in 2012, which allowed an additional wild-card team into the postseason field for each league. League officials then experimented with an expanded postseason to close out the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, with 16 teams all competing in the wild-card round.

Following a return to the usual format in 2021, a new 12-team playoff bracket was written into the newest collective bargaining agreement ahead of this season. The top two seeds in the American and National Leagues automatically qualify for the division series.

Here's how the seeding would look if the regular season ended today:

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American League Playoff Seeds

1. Houston Astros (75-41) 
2. New York Yankees (72-43) 
3. Cleveland Guardians (61-53) 
4. Toronto Blue Jays (61-52) 
5. Seattle Mariners (62-54) 
6. Tampa Bay Rays (60-53)

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National League Playoff Seeds

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (79-34) 
2. New York Mets (75-40) 
3. St. Louis Cardinals (63-51) 
4. Atlanta Braves (70-46) 
5. San Diego Padres (62-52) 
6. Philadelphia Phillies (63-51)

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This year's World Series could have a familiar feel with the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers leading their respective leagues. The Astros have represented the AL in three of the last five years, a level of consistency matched by the Dodgers in the NL.

Los Angeles has the highest World Series odds (18.0 percent) at FanGraphs, narrowly edging out Houston (17.4 percent).

L.A. would surely relish the opportunity for a rematch of the 2017 World Series in order to avenge a defeat that came the same year as the Astros' sign-stealing scandal.