Why Yankees have 'unfortunate' MLB postseason seeding situation

At 87-63, the New York Yankees have the second-best record in the American League. 

Yet, they may have to play in a Wild Card Series. 

If the regular season ended today, the Yankees would host the Boston Red Sox in a best-of-three Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium. 

Major League Baseball's postseason structure is to blame. The top two division winners get an automatic bye to the ALDS. 

As of Tuesday, those teams would be the Tampa Bay Rays (90-59) and the Chicago White Sox (77-73), who have won 10 fewer games than the Yankees. 

"Aaron Boone's Yankees still have an outside shot at catching the Rays, but they're most likely going to have to settle for the top wild-card spot in the AL," Bleacher Report's Tim Kelly wrote. "It's unfortunate in the sense that they have the second-best record in the AL but won't get a bye because they won't win their division." 

The Yankees are 3.5 games behind the Rays in the AL East race.

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Next week's four-game series between the two clubs could determine who wins the division, but New York has plenty of work to do. 

It's understandable if Yankees fans are upset about MLB's postseason seeding structure. 

Perhaps that's something that will be brought up at the negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA for the next collective bargaining agreement. 

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