This season has seen parity in Major League Baseball, with many playoff races going to the wire and no team reaching 100 victories. How does this compare with all seasons since 1996, the first full 162-game season with three divisions in each league?
To find out, RotoWire.com averaged the winning percentage for all six division champions in each season since 1996 to add to our MLB betting insight.
MLB Seasons With The Most Parity Since 1996
Season | Combined Record | Combined winning Pct. | No. of 100-Win Teams |
1997 | 549-422 | .565 | One |
2007 | 550-422 | .566 | Zero |
2006 | 554-417 | .571 | Zero |
1996 | 556-415 | .573 | Zero |
2025 | 558-414 | .574 | Zero |
2015 | 558-414 | .574 | One |
Note: Any season with less than 162 games (1994, 1995, 2020) was not included. The number of 100-game winners listed here only includes first-place teams.
With World Series odds at the top of the list for October wagers, the 2025 regular season ended on Sunday. The six division winners combined for a regular-season record of 558-414, with the sextet posting a combined winning percentage of .574. There were no 100-game winners in the 30-team league, marking the second straight season where no team hit that mark.
That combined win percentage among the six winners ranks fifth lowest since 1996. In 1997, the six division winners combined to go 549-422, for a .565 cumulative winning percentage, the lowest over the past 30 years for a full season. This season's total matched the 2015 season at a .574 winning percentage, with the same 558-414 record.
How 2025 MLB Playoff Races Ended
In 2025, we saw a neck-and-neck race across multiple divisions as action heated up at MLB betting sites. The American League East came down to the regular season's final weekend before the Toronto Blue Jays pulled it out, capturing the division via tiebreaker over the New York Yankees after both finished 94-68.
In the AL Central, things were even crazier. The Detroit Tigers squandered a huge lead – the Cleveland Guardians were 15.5 games out of first at one point this summer – as the hard-charging Guardians came from farther behind to win a division than any team in history. Cleveland won the division by one game, with a final record of 88-74 in the Buckeye State, the worst mark among the six division winners.
At BetMGM, the Guardians (+2500) and Tigers (+2000) are two of the longest shots to win the World Series. Both of Ohio's teams are at the bottom of the operator's board as the Cincinnati Reds (+3500) have the longest odds.
There wasn't much drama in the NL East (where the Phillies won by 13 games over the New York Mets) or the NL Central, where the Milwaukee Brewers posted the best record in the Majors at 97-65. The same couldn't be said out West.
In the AL West, the Seattle Mariners captured the club's first division crown in 24 years. The Los Angeles Dodgers won the NL West yet again, albeit with a fair amount of drama and pushback from the team's rivals from San Diego.
In the Wild Card, things were a lot saucier in both leagues. The Yankees claimed the top spot in the AL, while the Red Sox cruised into the No. 2 spot in the Junior Circuit and the Tigers slid into the third and final slot. The final berths were settled during the final weekend.
In the National League, the story was much the same, with the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres wrapping up two of the three Wild Card spots without much drama. The Cincinnati Reds (83-79) clinched the final playoff berth, edging the Mets on a tiebreaker.
Since the MLB expanded to the league's current 12-team (six in each league) structure in 2022, this year's Wild Card races in both leagues were tied with 2023 as the second tightest (see our story about MLB first-round byes to learn more about recent playoff history).
The only season with a tighter race for the third Wild Card spot was last year, when the Arizona Diamondbacks finished the season tied with the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets at 89-73 at year's end. The two NL East teams made it while the D'backs watched the postseason on TV.
MLB Seasons With The Least Parity Since 1996
Season | Combined Record | Combined winning Pct. | No. of 100-Win Teams |
2019 | 605-367 | .622 | Four |
2022 | 602-370 | .619 | Three |
2002 | 596-372 | .616 | Three |
1998 | 597-375 | .615 | Three |
1999 | 590-382 | .607 | Two |
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The 2025 season has been one to remember for parity, but the same can't be said some of other recent campaigns, such as 2019, when the six division winners went 605-367 (.622) with four 100-game winners. And in 2022, the six champs went 602-370 including three 100-game winners.
This century, only one other MLB season (2002) has seen such a lack of parity across the Majors, with that campaign seeing division winners post a combined record of 596-372 (.616) with three 100-game winners. And in 1998 (597-375/three 100-game winners) and 1999 (590-382/two 100-game winners) there was not a lot of parity, either.
In the five seasons with the least amount of parity, only in 2022 (Houston Astros) and 1998 (New York Yankees) did the team with the best regular season record win it all at year's end. So teams that miss out on the top seed in either league can hope to catch fire at the right time this postseason.
This season, oddsmakers from bet365 have the Philadelphia Phillies as their World Series betting favorite entering the 2025 MLB playoffs. The NL East stalwarts hold +425 odds of winning the club's first title since 2008, with the Seattle Mariners second at +450, followed by the defending champion Dodgers (+500), then the Blue Jays and Brewers (+800 each). The four Wild Card series get underway Tuesday.
