American League Central


The American League Central is one of six divisions in Major League Baseball. This division was formed in the realignment of 1994, and its teams are all located in the Midwestern United States. The AL Central is one of two divisions in the Major Leagues in which all of its members have won a World Series title. In fact, each team has captured at least two World Series championships.

Division membership

Current members

Place cursor over year for division champ or World Series team.

Champions by year

The Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals are the only teams from the AL Central division to have won the World Series since the league realignment in 1994.
* Due to the 1994 Major League Baseball strike starting August 12, no winner was determined. The Chicago White Sox were leading at the time that the strike began.
** In, the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox finished the season with the identical records of 88–74. The White Sox won the one-game playoff 1–0.
# In, the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers finished the season with identical records of 86–76. The Twins won the one-game playoff 6–5 in 12 innings.

Wild-card winners produced

In 1994, the Cleveland Indians were sitting atop the wild-card standings and would have qualified for the postseason as the AL's first wild card but on August 12 of that year, the season came to an early end due to a players strike, cancelling the remainder of the regular season and postseason. The 2006 Detroit Tigers were the first team from the Central to qualify as the wild card. MLB revamped the postseason starting in 2012, creating a new single-game playoff where two wildcards competed against each other while the division winners each received a bye. The winner of the American League wild card game moves on to face the top-seeded team of the AL in the American League Division Series. In 2013, the Indians became the first team from the AL Central to qualify as a wild card under the new postseason format. In 2014, the Kansas City Royals ended a 29-year postseason drought returning to the playoffs for the first time since winning the World Series in 1985.
YearWinnerRecord%GBPlayoffs
2006Detroit Tigers95–671Lost World Series to St. Louis, 4–1
2013Cleveland Indians92–701Lost ALWC to Tampa Bay
2014Kansas City Royals89–731Lost World Series to San Francisco, 4–3
2017Minnesota Twins85–7717Lost ALWC to New York

Division championships won by team

Current division members in bold