The Toronto Blue Jays won their first Wild Card Berths in 2016 then continue to win it again in 2020.
The Wild cards were introduced in 1994 to provide the top teams that didn’t win their division a chance to compete for a World Series championship. To avoid having to create a wild card for the best second-place club in both the American League and National League, the move from two to three divisions necessitated a first-round bye for one team in each league.
As a bonus, the wild card ensured that even if a club had the best record in its division, they would still be eligible for the playoffs thanks to their second-place finish. As a result of the 1994–95 Major League Baseball players’ strike, the 1995 postseason saw the first-ever appearance of a wild card club.
Wild Card Game is a one-game playoff between the two wild card clubs in each league, with the winner going on to face the number one seed in the Division Series. ‘
There will be four wild card teams, one from each league, representing the next two best records in each division, in addition to the three runners-up from each division.
There will be 37 different American League wild-card teams by the end of the 2021 postseason (one for each season from 1995 to 2011 and two for each season after 2012). Each division in the American League has produced a total of 24 players. An MLB-record eight times each has been Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
