MLB 2025: Most Shocking Playoff Misses of the Season
Samuel Smith | October 4, 2025
The 2025 MLB season has reached its business end, and the postseason is finally here. The World Series favorite Los Angeles Dodgers have taken a 1-0 lead in their heavyweight NLDS clash with the Philadelphia Phillies. On the East Coast, however, the Yankees find themselves in real danger of suffering a shock exit as they trail the Toronto Blue Jays by two games to zero. Then comes the Milwaukee Brewers, and whether the team armed with baseball’s best regular-season record can finally break free from years of playoff heartbreak and deliver on their immense promise?
Online MLB betting sites still have a clear frontrunner in mind, though, and that’s the reigning champion Dodgers. The latest MLB betting at Bovada odds currently price Shohei Ohtani and Co. a +210 frontrunner to defend their crown, with the fairytale-like Blue Jays a shock +380 second favorite. But while these outfits are battling it out for glory, a slew of other teams aren’t even featuring in the playoffs at all, despite lofty expectations in spring training. Here are the four most shocking postseason misses of 2025.
Astros
For eight straight years, the Houston Astros authored their own October saga: two World Series titles, seven AL West crowns, and a playoff probability peaking at 98.3% as of July 6—a figure unprecedented for any eventual non-qualifier in the modern era. But the numbers, brilliant as they were, crumbled as quickly as they were assembled. Houston’s 30-40 nosedive after July saw cornerstone players ripped from the lineup: Jeremy Peña’s oblique injury, Josh Hader and Isaac Paredes lost for critical stretches, and the seasoned bats of Jose Altuve (.720 OPS, his lowest since 2011) and Christian Walker silenced by age and fatigue.
When the regular season closed on an 87-75 record—the highest among teams missing the postseason—the silence in Minute Maid Park was thunderous. But despite the impressive win total, the haul was three games fewer than AL West winners Seattle, while the Detroit Tigers ultimately progressed with the final wildcard spot courtesy of their better head-to-head record.
The reasons for the failure are as layered as Houston’s once-dominant lineup: a league-low walk rate, lingering effects from the departures of Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman, and the sting of watching rivals—the surging Mariners, Guardians, and Red Sox—pass them on the homestretch. General Manager Dana Brown calls for a hard work reset, but the specter of aging stars and Framber Valdez approaching free agency raises difficult questions: Is this an end, or merely an intermission for an October empire?
Mets
Jurassic payrolls, prehistoric results. That’s the painful reality for the Mets in 2025, where a record-shattering $765 million commitment to Juan Soto promised to transform Citi Field into Wall Street South but ultimately yielded little in the way of returns. In preseason, the Bronx outfit was projected for 90-plus wins, but in the end, they couldn’t even finish above .500, undone by offensive droughts and a bullpen ranking among the league’s worst in save percentage.
Juan Soto x John Cena
— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) September 3, 2025
$50 million-per-year man Soto slugged 32 home runs—yet his moments of magic were nowhere to be found when September rolled around. With Kodai Senga and other arms beset by injuries, owner Steve Cohen watched his 15th-ranked offense and 15th-ranked payroll effectiveness draw the ire of pundits and fans alike.
The statistics? Painful: a negative run differential during crucial summer stretches, a 3-13 record in one-run games post-All-Star break. For all the blinding financial outlay, the Mets’ season ended not with a bang but with a long, slow exhale, forcing a front-office reckoning.
Rangers
Two years ago, the Texas Rangers defied their lowly fifth seed status to embark upon a fairytale run for the ages, culminating with them winning the World Series for the first time in franchise history. Fast forward to 2025, however, and the former champions have now missed the postseason for the second straight season. A $215 million payroll and the acquisition of Joc Pederson brought with them a return of championship expectations—and yet, the result has been a script gone horribly awry.
The numbers paint a dramatic portrait: 27th in OPS, 19th in home runs, with Pederson plummeting to .178 and Corey Seager’s recurring hamstring misery haunting the dugout. The rotation proved brittle, Jacob deGrom’s shadow looming large as the group limped to a collective 4.72 ERA.
Disaster struck acutely at season’s end: a 3-12 tailspin dropped them into the AL West basement. The front office responded by dismissing managerial architect Bruce Bochy—a striking move just two years after championship glory. Whether the Rangers brass reap the rewards for their brutal axing remains to be seen.
Orioles
The 2023 Orioles won a league-best 101 games, sparking visions of a Baltimore dynasty. One year later, that haul of wins decreased by ten, before falling to a paltry 75 in 2025, triggering a top-to-bottom plummet in the AL East in just two years. The loss of Corbin Burnes, whose departure to free agency left the rotation with a gaping wound, was only the beginning. Grayson Rodriguez’s Tommy John surgery compounded the misery, and the staff limped to an MLB-worst 5.47 ERA.
But it wasn’t only the pitching. Gunnar Henderson, a revelation the year prior, dropped to a .250 average, while team slumps snowballed into a 12-26 April—an early grave from which the O’s never escaped. By season’s end, the once-prodigious farm system was re-evaluated not as a gold mine, but a work in desperate progress. Whether the Maryland outfit can recalibrate throughout the offseason before marching back up the division remains to be seen.
Image details: CitiField, home of the Mets – Source: Unsplash
