If you were watching the scoreboard in the final week of September 2025, you know it was pure, unadulterated chaos. The playoff standings National League bracket didn't just settle into place; it basically survived a high-speed collision. We saw a race where 83 wins was somehow enough to sneak in, while 90 wins barely bought you a home game in the Wild Card round. It was a weird, wild year for the Senior Circuit.
Honestly, the National League was a tale of two worlds. On one side, you had the titans—Milwaukee and Philadelphia—who spent most of the summer casually glancing at the rear-view mirror. On the other, you had a Wild Card scramble that felt like a group of people trying to cram into an elevator as the doors were closing.
The Final 2025 National League Standings
Let’s look at the teams that actually survived the 162-game grind. The Milwaukee Brewers finished as the top seed in the NL, putting up a 97-65 record. They were absolute machines in the NL Central. Just a step behind them were the Philadelphia Phillies at 96-66, securing that crucial first-round bye.
Then things got interesting. The Los Angeles Dodgers, despite a roster that looks like a video game cheat code, ended up with 93 wins. Good? Yeah. Enough for a bye? Nope. They had to settle for the No. 3 seed as the NL West winners.
The Wild Card spots went to the Chicago Cubs (92-70), the San Diego Padres (90-72), and the Cincinnati Reds (83-79). Yes, the Reds made it with 83 wins. They actually tied with the New York Mets but owned the tiebreaker, leaving Queens in the cold. It’s kinda brutal when you think about it.
Why the Bye Matters (And Why It Didn't for the Dodgers)
In the current MLB format, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds get to sit at home, rest their arms, and watch the Wild Card teams beat each other up for three days. Milwaukee and Philly earned that right.
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The Dodgers, however, were forced into a best-of-three series against Cincinnati. You’d think the Reds would be a speed bump for a 93-win powerhouse, but that's the thing about the playoff standings National League—seeding gives you home field, but it doesn't give you a head start. L.A. did end up sweeping that series (10-5 and 8-4), but they had to burn their best pitchers just to get to the NLDS.
The Cubs and Padres Dogfight
The 4/5 matchup between the Cubs and Padres was probably the most "pure" baseball we saw all year. You had two teams with 90+ wins playing in a "Wild Card" round. That’s more wins than the division-winning Guardians had over in the American League.
Chicago took Game 1 at Wrigley, 3-1. San Diego fired back with a 3-0 shutout in Game 2. It all came down to a rainy Thursday afternoon where the Cubs pulled out another 3-1 win. It felt like a heavyweight fight where both guys were too tired to fall down.
Breaking Down the Seeds
If you’re trying to make sense of how these teams were actually ranked, it follows a pretty strict internal logic:
The Brewers took the No. 1 spot because they had the best record among all division winners. Simple enough. The Phillies took No. 2 as the second-best division winner. Both of these teams skipped the Wild Card round entirely.
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The Dodgers were the "worst" of the three division winners at 93-69, so they got slotted at No. 3.
The Wild Card seeds (4, 5, and 6) are strictly record-based for everyone who didn't win their division. The Cubs (92 wins) were the 4-seed, the Padres (90 wins) were the 5-seed, and the Reds (83 wins) grabbed the 6-seed.
The Tiebreaker That Ruined the Mets' Winter
We have to talk about the New York Mets. They finished 83-79. The Cincinnati Reds also finished 83-79. In the old days, we would have had a "Game 163"—a one-game playoff to decide who gets in.
But MLB killed Game 163. Now, it’s all mathematical. Because the Reds held the head-to-head advantage over the Mets during the regular season, they got the playoff spot automatically. No tiebreaker game. No extra drama. Just a spreadsheet saying "sorry, New York." It’s a polarizing rule, but it certainly makes every regular-season series between contenders feel like a playoff game.
The Postseason Path
Once the playoff standings National League were finalized, the bracket looked like this:
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- Wild Card Round: Dodgers (3) vs. Reds (6) and Cubs (4) vs. Padres (5).
- NLDS: Brewers (1) played the winner of Cubs/Padres, while the Phillies (2) took on the Dodgers.
The Brewers eventually took care of the Cubs in five games, which was a heartbreaker for the North Side. Meanwhile, the Dodgers went on a tear, upsetting the Phillies in four games. If you were betting on the Phillies' pitching staff to carry them to the World Series, you lost some money in October 2025.
The Dodgers eventually swept the Brewers in the NLCS to represent the National League in the World Series. They faced the Toronto Blue Jays and won it all in seven games. It was a classic "money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a ring" situation for Los Angeles.
Actionable Insights for Following the NL Race
If you want to stay ahead of the curve for the next season or just understand why the standings look the way they do, keep these tips in mind.
First, watch the head-to-head records early. Since there are no more tiebreaker games, a random three-game series in May could literally be the reason a team makes the playoffs in September. It happened to the Mets in 2025, and it'll happen to someone else soon.
Second, track the "games behind" in the Wild Card specifically. The gap between the 3-seed and the 4-seed is usually huge because the 3-seed has to be a division winner. Often, the 4-seed (the first Wild Card) has a better record than the 3-seed. In 2025, the Dodgers were the 3-seed with 93 wins, but the 4-seed Cubs had 92. If the Cubs had won two more games, they still would have been the 4-seed because they didn't win their division.
Lastly, don't ignore the NL Central. For years, people called it a "weak" division, but with Milwaukee and Chicago both winning 90+ games in 2025, it’s clearly become the powerhouse of the league.
The 2025 season proved that the National League is deep, messy, and totally unpredictable. Whether you're a die-hard or just checking the scores, understanding the seeding logic is the only way to keep your sanity when the September pennant race turns into a sprint.