List of National League Wild Card winners

See also: Major League Baseball Wild Card

The wild card was established for Major League Baseball's playoffs in 1994 with the intention of helping the best teams that did not win their division to still have a chance to win the World Series. The restructuring of both the National and American Leagues from two divisions each to three made it necessary to either give one team a bye in the first round of playoffs, or create the wild card for the best second-place team. In addition, the wild card guaranteed that the team with the second best record in each league would qualify for the playoffs, even if they were in the same division with the team having the best record.

There were no division or wild-card winners in 1994, due to the 1994 Major League Baseball strike.

Beginning in 2012, a second wild card team will be added to each league. The two wild card teams in each league will face each other in a one game playoff, the winner advancing to meet the number one seed in the Division Series.

NL wild-card qualifiers by year

As of 2011, three NL wild-card teams went on to win the World Series (Florida in 1997 and 2003 plus St Louis in 2011). Four teams won the NL pennant, but lost the World Series (Colorado, Houston, New York, San Francisco). Two other teams won the division series but lost the championship series. The remaining eight teams lost the division series.

• Team names link to the season in which each team played

Year	Team	Record	%	Playoffs
1995	Colorado Rockies	77–67	.535	Lost Division Series to Atlanta, 3–1
1996	Los Angeles Dodgers	90–72	.556	Lost Division Series to Atlanta, 3–0
1997	Florida Marlins	92–70	.568	Won World Series over Cleveland, 4–3
1998†	Chicago Cubs	90–73	.552	Lost Division Series to Atlanta, 3–0
1999†	New York Mets	97–66	.595	Lost NLCS to Atlanta, 4–2
2000	New York Mets	94–68	.580	Lost World Series to New York (AL), 4–1
2001*	St. Louis Cardinals	93–69	.574	Lost Division Series to Arizona, 3–2
2002	San Francisco Giants	95–66	.590	Lost World Series to Anaheim, 4–3
2003	Florida Marlins	91–71	.562	Won World Series over New York (AL), 4–2
2004	Houston Astros	92–70	.568	Lost NLCS to St. Louis, 4–3
2005	Houston Astros	89–73	.549	Lost World Series to Chicago (AL), 4–0
2006	Los Angeles Dodgers	88–74	.543	Lost Division Series to New York (NL), 3–0
2007†	Colorado Rockies	90–73	.552	Lost World Series to Boston, 4–0
2008	Milwaukee Brewers	90–72	.556	Lost Division Series to Philadelphia, 3–1
2009	Colorado Rockies	92–70	.571	Lost Division Series to Philadelphia, 3–1
2010	Atlanta Braves	91–71	.562	Lost Division Series to San Francisco, 3–1
2011	St Louis Cardinals	90–72	.556	Won World Series over Texas, 4–3

† - Wild card won in a tiebreaker one-game playoff.

* - Awarded Wild Card without tiebreaker, due to head-to-head losses against Division Winner.

Most NL wild-card appearances

Rank	Team	Total	Year(s)
1	Colorado Rockies	3	1995, 2007, 2009
T-2	Los Angeles Dodgers	2	1996, 2006
T-2	Florida Marlins	2	1997, 2003
T-2	New York Mets	2	1999, 2000
T-2	St. Louis Cardinals	2	2001, 2011
T-2	Houston Astros	2	2004, 2005
T-7	Chicago Cubs	1	1998
T-7	San Francisco Giants	1	2002
T-7	Milwaukee Brewers	1	2008
T-7	Atlanta Braves	1	2010

Teams' NLDS records as NL wild-card qualifiers

NL Team	Series Record
Florida Marlins	2–0
Houston Astros	2–0
New York Mets	2–0
San Francisco Giants	1–0
St. Louis Cardinals	1–1
Colorado Rockies	1–2
Atlanta Braves	0–1
Chicago Cubs	0–1
Milwaukee Brewers	0–1
Los Angeles Dodgers	0–2
combined	9–8

See also

• List of World Series champions
• List of National League pennant winners
• List of American League pennant winners
• National League Division Series
• List of AL Wildcard winners
• Major League Baseball division winners (and wild-card winners)
• Wild card (sports)#Major League Baseball
• Wild card (sports)#Record disparities