What is the most wins in baseball to not make the playoffs?

Answer 1

As the previous answer stated, the SF Giants won 103 games (of 162 games) in 1993 and failed to make the playoffs - finishing 1 game behind the Braves who had 104 wins - the last true great pennant race. The next year the Wild Card was started and the Giants clearly would have been the WC team.

But the most wins by a team to not make the playoffs was the 1909 Cubs with 104 wins - 2nd behind Pirates w/ 110 wins. Note that this was pre-1962 - w/ only a 154 game season!

Other very notable teams:

- 1954 Yankees - 103 wins - 2nd in AL behind Cleveland w/ 111 wins - 154 game season

- 1962 Dodgers - 101 wins - tied with Giants for NL pennant, lost 2-1 in 3 game playoff - 162 game season

Note: MLB shows the Dodgers record as 102-63 (and Giants as 103-62) - MLB includes the tie-breaking playoff as part of the regular season since there were no "playoffs" back then. If two teams tied, they played a best of 3 game playoff and the record of that was included as part of the "regular Season" - the winner of the "regular season" went to the World Series. You see this in the 1954 records where the Giants also beat the Dodgers in a 3 game tie-breaker series.

BUT OVERALL this is not a simple question to answer given the changing playoff structure over the years, the change in number of games in a season, and other factors. Which is more remarkable (or frustrating) - the '09 Cub with 104 wins in 154 games when only the NL winner went to the WS, of the Giants in '93 with 103 wins when 2 NL teams went to the postseason , but not them?

Some of the changes over the years which make direct comparisons more subjective:

- Prior to 1904, seasons ranged from 112 to 140 games

- From 1904 to 1962 teams played only 154 games (or fewer) - 164 game season began in 1962

- Until 1969 only 2 teams made the "Playoffs" - the winner of the AL met the winner of the NL in the WS

- in 1969 the leages expanded and creates East/West Divisions - the winners of these met in the playoffs to determine who went to the WS - thus 4 teams went to the post season vs only 2

- In 1993 the leagues expanded again to a East/Central/West format with the winners and the next best record (WC team) going into the playoffs - thus 8 teams made it to postseason

So you can see that with each successive change, it became harder to have 100+ wins and miss the playoffs. With more divisions and WC teams, it is harder to miss the playoffs with a 100 win season. For example, in 2001 the A's won 102 games and were 14 games behind the Mariners (116 wins) but they got the Wild Card and thus made it to the playoffs.

One final note, given the different number of games in a season over the years, maybe one should talk in win percentages (vs total wins). In 1886 the Detroit Wolverines of the National League had a .707 winning percentage (87-36) and came in second place to the Chicago White Stockings (.726, 90-34). The Wolverines are the only team in Major League Baseball history with a winning percentage of over .700 who did not make the postseason.

Final Final note - the white Stockings lost to the St Louis Browns (93-46) in 6 games of a 7 game WS. Note the different number of games played between the NL and AA teams.

Answer 2

In MLB, that would be 104 wins by the 1909 Chicago Cubs who went 104-49 and finished 6.5 games behind the pennant winning Pittsburgh Pirates who went 110-42 and the 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers who went 104-50 and finished 2 games behind the pennant winning St. Louis Cardinals who went 106-48.