The Royals are on the cusp of making the playoffs for the first time since they won it all in 2015. Back in those days, baseball had an exciting one-game winner-take-all matchup of Wild Card teams, a format that benefitted the Royals when they defeated the Athletics in 2014.
But the playoff format since then has changed. In 2022, baseball added a third Wild Card team, and restructured the playoffs to get away from the one-game playoff and provide more incentives to finish among the top two teams in each league. Under the new format, six teams in each league make the post-season.