The battle for the AL West title between the Rangers and Astros remains closely contested. Texas currently has a 1.5 game lead on their in-state rival, while Houston is 2.5 games up on the Angels and Twins for the second AL Wild Card. Fun fact – the Astros and Rangers have made the Postseason in the same year just twice, 1998 and 1999. They were both eliminated in the Division Series in each year.
But this really isn’t about the Astros or the Rangers – it’s about the AL West as a whole, and just how awful this division has been in the Postseason since realignment. Since 1995, the AL West has won a total of three AL pennants and one World Series (though the Astros did win a pennant in 2005 when they were still in the NL Central). No other division in baseball has won fewer pennants than the AL West’s three, and only the AL Central has claimed just a single World Series. Furthermore, the AL West has been bad at claiming Wild Card berths too – before the expansion to two Wild Cards, only three AL West teams made the playoffs as a Wild Card (though again – the Astros won two in the National League). The only division in baseball with less is, once again, the AL Central – which only saw the 2006 Tigers win the Wild Card.
Recently, AL West teams (aside from the Rangers) have been laughably bad in MLB’s Postseason. The Astros haven’t been to the playoffs since 2005 (a drought which could end this year), and the Mariners haven’t been there since 2001. The only team with a longer current streak of non-playoff seasons than the Marners is the Toronto Blue Jays, who are poised to win the AL East this season. The only teams with longer droughts than the Astros? The aforementioned Blue Jays and Mariners, along with the Miami Marlins. That’s not good.
Furthermore, the AL West teams that have made it to the Postseason recently haven’t thrived (again, aside from the Rangers). The A’s have won a total of one Postseason series (despite making the dance EIGHT TIMES) since realignment began, and were swept in the ALCS in that season. The Angels had a great run of six playoff berths in eight seasons which began with a World Championship in 2002, but were bounced in the ALDS in three of those seasons, winning a total of one game over those three years. They reached the playoffs for the first time since 2009 last season, and were swept by the Royals despite winning an MLB-best 98 games during the regular season.
ARLINGTON, TX – OCTOBER 22: Josh Hamilton #32 of the Texas Rangers jumps on top of his teammates as they celebrate after defeating the New York Yankees 6-1 in Game Six of the ALCS to advance to the World Series during the 2010 MLB Playoffs at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on October 22, 2010 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
And then, there are the Texas Rangers. Texas has made just six playoff appearances in their history, all since realignment. They were bounced in the ALDS in the first three of those, winning one game in the process. The Rangers won back to back pennants in 2010 and 2011, coming up short both times, and were thumped by the Orioles in the 2012 Wild Card game. But hey, two pennants is more than the rest of the teams in the division combined over the last 20 years!
Is there a chief cause of the division’s struggles in the Postseason? Without diving all that deep, we can point the finger at the AL East. From 1995-2011, the division took home a staggering 13 Wild Card berths, and every team in the division except the Blue Jays won both a division title and a Wild Card. Of the 17 AL West teams that didn’t win pennants over those 17 seasons, 14 were eliminated by AL East teams (the three that weren’t – 2002 Athletics, 2005 Angels, 2006 Athletics). In head to head matchups, the AL West is 7-14 against the AL East. Four of those seven series wins came in the pennant runs by the Angels and Rangers.
But with the introduction of the second Wild Card, times should be changing…right? Well, not really. Each AL division has won two Wild Cards during the three seasons the expanded playoffs have been in effect. The AL West saw the Rangers lose to the Orioles (damn AL East again!) in 2012, and the A’s fall to the Royals in 2014. Over the last three seasons, the ALCS has been an exclusively AL East vs AL Central affair – the A’s were bounced in five games by the Tigers in both 2012 and 2013, and the Angels were of course swept by the Royals last season.
Will these year change anything? Probably not. Either the Blue Jays or Royals would be a tough ALDS matchup for the Rangers or Astros, and if one of those teams claims the second AL Wild Card, a trip to Yankee Stadium looks like a daunting task – even if Masahiro Tanaka isn’t 100% for that game. But the division may be seeing better days in the future – the firm grip that the Yankees and Red Sox had on two playoff spots in the AL every year has dropped off considerably lately, and the two teams both haven’t made the playoffs since 2009. The AL Central is also looking thoroughly mediocre following this year’s collapse of the Tigers and the continued mediocrity of the White Sox and Indians.
With both of the Texas clubs on the upswing in 2015 and presumably beyond, could the balance of power shift to them in the American League? It’s definitely a possibility, and it’s not a stretch to think that these two clubs will be battling for the AL West title for the rest of the decade.
