Guardians, Twins, Royals standings: The race for the American League Central is on

CLEVELAND — Teams across the league say it every year: "Just get into the playoffs, and anything can happen."

An argument could be made the above sentiment holds more truth this year in the American League than any season in the recent past considering the parity the AL has enjoyed thus far.

No team in the AL is on pace for 100 wins . In fact, no team is on pace for 96 wins as of Monday night. And no team has been able to separate itself from the pack.

More than the other major sports, baseball is the best example of "Just get into the playoffs, and anything can happen." It's a sport that demands large sample sizes to really sort things out and, in the playoffs, all of that is compressed into a short series. It's part of the beauty of the baseball postseason.

The Guardians have been one of baseball's best (and most surprising) stories so far in 2024, along with the Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles and a few other teams. Several things have gone extremely well (a league-best bullpen), and some others haven't exactly gone to plan (the starting rotation continues to be on shaky ground).

Cleveland Guardians standings in AL Central against Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals

The Guardians, after being swept in a doubleheader Monday by the Royals , are three games from having the best record in the American League. The problem? They're also just two games being the bottom seed as the third and final wild card team.

Obviously, the Guardians are vying for an AL Central crown and one of the two byes through the first series. But step one is to get in; step two is to just see what happens.

"Yeah, I think that's generally our mindset," said president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti. "I mean, if you can stack the deck in your favor, that's helpful, by getting byes or having home-field advantage, those things are helpful. But as we've seen it play out over the recent past, once you get in, any team can win."

The Guardians have watched their lead in the AL Central almost vanish during a time in which they've run into some top-tier pitching. They're also hoping to now follow the path of the Texas Rangers, who also struggled through a slump late in the season and were at one point barely even considered a playoff contender.

"I think the Rangers may have been written off entirely in August, and we saw how quickly things can change," Antonetti said. "So, yeah, I think our goal is to try to find a way to make sure we're one of those teams that gets an opportunity to play, and then make the most of it, because you never know what can happen. There have been years in which we've seen those super teams that are 105-, 108-win teams, and this year it doesn't look like [that will be the case]."

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The race for the AL Central isn't just heating up, it's now essentially just on fire with a little more than a month to go. It means it's officially scoreboard-watching season for executives, players, coaches and just about everyone involved with the game.

"Yeah, I mean, we're all exceptionally passionate about what we do," Antonetti said, acknowledging the daily stress of a playoff race late in the season. "We care deeply about wins and losses, and it sucks that the losses hurt more than the wins feel good, but that's the nature of the job."

Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Threads at @ByRyanLewis .

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians, Twins, Royals standings: The race for the American League Central is on