The options are beginning to come into focus.

With just five games left in the 2025 Major League Baseball regular season, seeding is becoming a little bit more clear by the day. And while the Phillies still have an outside shot to catch the Brewers for the No. 1 overall seed, the overwhelmingly likely National League seeding path looks like this:

That leaves four realistic options for the Phillies to face off against in the NLDS starting on Oct. 4 at Citizens Bank Park.

Let’s rank them order of teams I would most and least want to see to start off Red October.