The final weekend of the MLB season: Playoff spots and seeds, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge pursuits, more

October is just a few days away, which means Major League Baseball's postseason is about to begin. With the exception of the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves, who will play a doubleheader on Monday after their plans were disrupted by Hurricane Helene, all clubs will complete their regular-season schedules on Sunday.

There may only be three days left on the calendar for most of the MLB, but that doesn't mean everything is decided. In fact, far from it.

With that in mind, we here at CBS Sports wanted to provide a handy guide to what's at stake in Friday's games. Below are nine of the most important and unresolved dynamics, ranging from playoff spots and seedings to individual efforts at notable achievements – all compiled with the intent of helping you prioritize which games are yours over the next three days deserve attention.

Let's get down to business.

1. Playoff spots

Next Friday, eight of the twelve playoff places are secured. The New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Guardians and Houston Astros have punched their American League tickets; The Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres have done the same in the National League.

Two more teams could secure their spots on Friday: The Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers would secure entry with either a win or a loss by the Minnesota Twins against the Baltimore Orioles. These clinches would complete the AL side of the bracket.

The NL side will take longer to resolve. The Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks entered Friday tied for second and third, while the Braves were one game behind. As mentioned in the introduction, the Mets and Braves will play a doubleheader on Monday.

2. Seed positioning

Of course, the playoff round is about more than just which teams are involved. There's also the question of seeding, which is particularly important at the top of the leagues as it determines who would have home field advantage if the top seeds advance to the League Championship Series.

The top seed in the AL could be decided as early as Friday evening. The Yankees must win against the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Guardians must lose against the Astros to secure first place. If just one of these criteria is met on Friday night, the Yankees would be in position to secure the top spot on Saturday.

The NL's top seed cannot be determined on Friday, although the Dodgers will enter with a one-game lead over the Phillies. The Phillies have the tiebreaker by winning the season series, suggesting the race could come down to the final minute.

3. White Sox on the verge of history

Last Sunday, the Chicago White Sox tied MLB's modern single-season loss record by losing their 120th game of the year. At the time, it seemed certain that the White Sox would lose another game, their 121st, in the coming days and pass the 1962 New York Mets for the worst season in modern MLB history.

To their credit, the White Sox have staved off loss No. 121 so far, winning a three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels and improving their record to 39-120. The White Sox will finish the year with three games against the Tigers.

Conditions don't appear to be favorable for another White Sox win: Not only are the Tigers 9-1 against the White Sox this season, but as mentioned above, they also have something else to offer, namely a spot in the Playoffs.

4. Ohtani Triple Crown Watch

Sure, Shohei Ohtani has already had a 50-50 season. And yes, he cleared a total of 400 bases. But believe it or not, he may have one more historic achievement ahead of him before the playoffs begin: securing the first NL Triple Crown since Joe Medwick in 1937.

Instead, Ohtani will head into the Dodgers' season-ending series against the Colorado Rockies with a chance to win the NL Triple Crown.

Here's a look at where Ohtani stands in the three relevant categories as of Friday morning:

• Batting average: .305, third in the Netherlands, .007 points behind
• Home runs: 53, leads the NL with 14
• Impacted barrels: 126, leads the NL with 15

Expect Ohtani to end the season leading the NL in both home runs and runs batted in. Can he overtake both Luis Arraez and Marcell Ozuna in batting average? We'll find out.

5. Judge tracks 60 home runs

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has rebounded from a (relative) home run slump by striking out in five straight games. He's now up to 58 home runs this season, making it plausible that he hits 60 home runs for the second time in his big league career.

Judge, whose Yankees will host three games against the Pirates this weekend, hit 62 home runs during the 2022 season, setting new franchise and AL single-season records. It seems unlikely (though not entirely impossible) that he will break his own record. A more realistic goal, however, is for him to hit a home run twice to get to 60.

If Judge achieves this feat, he would become only the third player in history to hit 60 or more home runs in two different seasons. The others? Sammy Sosa (three) and Mark McGwire (two).

6. Ramírez wants to join the 40-40 club

Ohtani's creation of the 50-50 club should not obscure the fact that Guardians third baseman José Ramírez is on the verge of becoming the seventh player ever to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season.

Ramírez enters Friday's opener against the Astros and needs just two home runs to earn the membership. He has 38 home runs and 40 stolen bases.

The other members of the 40-40 club are Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr., Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco.

7. Arraez aims for third straight batting title, history

We found that the only thing separating Ohtani from the NL triple crown is his third-place batting average. The current leader is known as Padres DH Luis Arraez looks to take home his third straight batting title.

Arraez, who is batting .312, will enter Friday's game with a two-point lead over Marcell Ozuna and a seven-point lead over Ohtani. These are the only three qualified NL players with averages over .300.

As MLB.com noted earlier this year, Arraez would become the first player in history to win three batting titles in three years with three different teams. Arraez did it with the Twins in 2022, the Marlins last year and possibly the Padres this year.

8. Sale and Skubal in the hunt for the triple crown

Ohtani isn't the only player aiming for a Triple Crown – but he is the only hitter to do so. Both Atlanta's Chris Sale and Detroit's Tarik Skubal are capable of winning their league's pitching triple crowns – that is, wins, ERA and strikeouts.

Sale and Skubal are sure to lead their respective leagues in wins and ERA. Sale seems to have a more secure edge in strikeouts: He has a lead of 12 over Dylan Cease (who made his last regular-season start a few days ago) and a lead of 12 over Zack Wheeler. Skubal now has five more strikeouts than Royals lefty Cole Ragans.

Both Skubal and Ragans are scheduled to start on Sunday. It is unclear whether these performances will go ahead as planned, for reasons we will cover in the next subtitle.

Shane Bieber technically won the AL Triple Crown during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The last full-season Triple Crown winners both came in 2011: Justin Verlander in the AL, Clayton Kershaw in the NL.

9. Rotational alignment

We promise more about Skubal and Ragans, here it is.

It will be up to the Tigers and Royals to secure a playoff spot on Friday or even Saturday. Whatever it takes to move on from the left-handers on Sunday, this will allow them to be used to their full potential during the wild card round.

If one or both have to take the ball on Sunday, their first-round teams will face a dilemma: Either start Game 3 with a short rest or risk not making a single playoff start. Neither is an ideal scenario.