The Cleveland Guardians are the 2025 American League Central champions!

The reason you play all 162 games in the season is that you never know what’s going to happen during them. 

When the Cleveland Guardians’ season was spiraling out of control in July, they could have given up on the year, but they didn’t.

Now, the Guardians are the 2025 American League Central division champions!

This title marks the 14th time in franchise history that a Cleveland team has ended the regular season at the top of its division.

It also continues a stretch of pure regular-season dominance for the Guardians within their own division. For the second consecutive season, and third time in the last four years, the Guardians have clinched the AL Central.

The Guardians didn’t even need to win game 162 to clinch their spot at the top of the division.

With the Boston Red Sox defeating the Detroit Tigers 3-2 on Sunday afternoon, Cleveland guaranteed its spot as the top team in the AL Central.

This title is easily one of the most improbable, incredible, and memorable comebacks, not just in the Cleveland franchise's history, but in MLB as well. 

On September 4, Cleveland was 11.0 games behind the Detroit Tigers and was in third place in the division. FranFrapgs gave them a near-impossible 0.1% chance of coming back and winning the division.

However, the Guardians believed they could do it, and that’s exactly what they did. 

With Cleveland now clinching the AL Central title, they own the largest division comeback in MLB since 1969, when the St. Louis Cardinals accomplished the same feat. 

The Guardians have some big shoes to fill because this Cardinals team went on to win the World Series just a few years later. 

Believe it or not, Cleveland’s deficit at the beginning of September wasn’t even the largest of the season. 

On July 8, the Guardians were 15.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers and had a 0.7% chance of winning the division, according to FanGraphs. 

With this, Cleveland makes MLB history, becoming the first team to overcome a division deficit this large. The previous high was set by the 1914 Boston Braves, who overcame a 15.0-game deficit to finish first in the National League, according to Elias Sports. 

In a way, it’s fitting that the Red Sox were the team to help the Guardians make this incredible MLB history, since their previous franchise held the previous record. 

The Braves team also went on to win the World Series that season. Is baseball history trying to hint at what Cleveland might be celebrating at the end of October?

Who knows? Maybe the Guardians will follow in the legendary Braves and Cardinals’ footsteps. 

Whatever happens once the playoffs start, this 2025 roster will go down in history as having one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.