What Are the Indians Odds of Making the Postseason 30 Games Into the 2020 Season?

The Indians are exactly halfway through the season as they get set to play the rubber match against the Twins Wednesday night at Progressive Field. The team being six games over .500 means that they are in a favorable position to make the postseason. What exactly are the odds for the team with 30 games left in the regular season to make it to playing postseason baseball?

Nothing has seemed normal about the 2020 season in Major League Baseball, and with 30 games left in the regular season the Indians are just 1.5 back of the Twins in the AL Central for the lead in the division.

Let's not forget though that there's an expanded postseason that will see no less than 16 teams make the playoffs, giving the Indians and other teams that might be on the bubble a chance to make it to October baseball.

The trade deadline next week will likely change the landscape for a number of teams, but as of now the Indians are in a very good position to at least make it to the playoffs after missing out last season.

Buster Olney of ESPN today sent out an interesting tweet about the AL Central talking about the top three clubs, the Twins, Tribe and White Sox.

The tweet states that the Indians right now have a whopping 97.9 percent chance to playing postseason baseball under the new format.

The Twins, who again lead the Tribe by 1.5 games entering Wednesday, have a 99.6 chance, while the Chicago White Sox have a solid 97.7 chance.

AL Central team odds for making the playoffs, per Fangraphs:
Twins 99.6%
Indians 97.9%
White Sox 97.7%
Royals 9.0%
Tigers 8.8%

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) August 26, 2020

In case you may have forgotten how the postseason is going to work for the eight teams in the AL and eight in the NL, here's the overall breakdown:

As has been the case since 2012, there will be four rounds. But instead of a round featuring a sudden-death Wild Card Game with the division winners resting, the format will be as follows:

Wild Card Series (best-of-three, with all games at the higher seed’s home ballpark): No. 1 seed vs. No. 8; No. 2 vs. No. 7; No. 3 vs. No. 6; No. 4 vs. No. 5.

Division Series (best-of-five, with traditional 2-2-1 home/road format): Winner of 1-8 vs. Winner of 4-5; Winner of 2-7 vs. Winner of 3-6. Home-field advantage goes to the higher seed.

League Championship Series (best-of-seven, with traditional 2-3-2 home/road format): Winner of 1-4-5-8 vs. Winner of 2-3-6-7. Home-field advantage goes to the higher seed.

World Series (best-of-seven, with traditional 2-3-2 home/road format): AL champion vs. NL champion. Home-field advantage goes to the team with the superior regular-season record.