MLB playoff predictions: Padres are World Series favorites, but postseason still wide open

After a thrilling wild-card round, Major League Baseball’s playoffs resume Saturday with the best-of-five Division Series getting underway.

The LDS winners advance to their respective best-of-seven League Championship Series. Should the LCS’s both end by Oct. 19 − meaning neither series lasts longer than five games under the current schedule − the World Series will begin on Oct. 22, with a potential Game 7 coming on Oct. 30.

Eight teams remain. Who will be the last team standing?

The only thing we know for certain this October is that a new team will be crowned champion with the 2024 defending World Series champion Texas Rangers not in the postseason.

Here’s how USA TODAY Sports’ baseball writers and editors see the rest of the postseason shaking out:

MLB playoff predictions: Padres are World Series favorites, but postseason still wide open — Fernando Tatis Jr. reacts after hitting a home run in the first inning of Game 1.

Table of Contents

Bob Nightengale

ALDS winners: Yankees, Guardians
NLDS winners: Phillies, Padres
AL champion: Yankees
NL champion: Padres
World Series winner: Padres – Mark your calendars. San Diego will defeat the Yankees in a rematch of the 1998 World Series.

Gabe Lacques

ALDS winners: Royals, Guardians
NLDS winners: Phillies, Padres
AL champion: Guardians
NL champion: Padres
World Series winner: Padres – Rotation, bullpen, lineup – nobody’s better in all three phases

Jesse Yomtov

ALDS winners: Yankees, Guardians
NLDS winners: Phillies, Padres
AL champion: Yankees
NL champion: Phillies
World Series winner: Phillies – Third time will be the charm after Bryce Harper and the Phillies have come up short the past two years

Scott Boeck

ALDS winners: Yankees, Guardians
NLDS winners: Phillies, Padres
AL champion: Yankees
NL champion: Padres
World Series: Padres – This one’s for Peter Seidler, the former team owner who passed away last November. He brought Manny Machado to San Diego to deliver the city it’s first championship in franchise history.

Steve Borelli

ALDS winners: Yankees, Tigers
NLDS winners: Phillies, Padres
AL champion: Yankees
NL champion: Phillies
World Series winner: Phillies – In this rematch of the 2009 World Series, this time Philadelphia has the deeper, more complete team from top to bottom and is less reliant on its star players.