Chris Sale, Cody Bellinger Among the Top Players Making Their Playoff Debuts

It may be the most loaded playoff slate in recent memory, but plenty of this year's teams are debuting some important players in postseason play. Here's a look at the best players making their postseason debuts.

The striking thing about the Yankees' come-from-behind victory over the Twins in the AL Wild Card game, besides Luis Severino's failure to escape the first inning, was the way that so many first-time postseason participants rose to the occasion. Reliever Chad Green put out the initial fire, striking out back-to-back batters when a hit could have expanded the lead to 5–0. Presumptive AL Rookie of the Year Aaron Judge won a seven-pitch battle against Ervin Santana in the bottom of the first with a bloop single, then applied the coup de grâce with a two-run homer in the fourth. Catcher Gary Sanchez doubled and scored the go-ahead run in the third inning—driven in by Greg Bird—and survived a potentially mortal blow to the groin. Reliever Tommy Kahnle retired all seven batters he faced.

While efforts to quantify playoff experience have gone for naught, not everybody handles the mix of adrenaline and pressure applied by 50,000 screaming fans equally well when the season hangs by a thread. Then again, no championship is won without a few postseason newcomers—perhaps rookies, but not necessarily—rising to the occasion. The Yankees wouldn't be moving on without Green summoning a reserve of calm in the heat of the moment: “I don’t think I had the chance to be nervous,” he said afterwards. “I was just trying to slow the game down, take it one pitch at a time."

With the Division Series set to begin on Thursday and Friday, what follows here is a look at the key first-time participants for each team. Some of them are role players, others are centerpieces on whom World Series dreams hinge.