2012 Major League Baseball postseason

The 2012 Major League Baseball postseason was the playoff tournament of Major League Baseball for the 2012 season. The winners of the Division Series moved on to the League Championship Series to determine the pennant winners that face each other in the World Series. A new Wild Card Game was introduced as the opening round of the postseason, which features the #4 and #5 seeds of each league, and the winner faced the team with the best record in the Division Series, marking the first expansion of the postseason since 1995. As a result of this new format, two teams from the same division can now meet in the Division Series. In the past (from 1995–2011), if the team with the best record in their league and the wild card resided in the same division, the wild card would instead be assigned to face the second-seeded division champion while the team with the best record in their league to face the third-seeded division champion. This meant that the only way two teams in the same division could meet in the postseason would be the League Championship Series, provided both teams won their respective Division Series.

In the American League, the New York Yankees made their seventeenth postseason appearance of the past eighteen years, the Detroit Tigers returned for the second year in a row, the Oakland Athletics made their first appearance since 2006, the Texas Rangers returned for the third straight time, and the Baltimore Orioles made their first postseason appearance since 1997.

In the National League, the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds returned for the second time in three years, the St. Louis Cardinals made their second straight appearance, the Atlanta Braves returned for the second time in three years, and the Washington Nationals ended over three decades of futility by making their first postseason appearance since 1981 (when they were originally the Montreal Expos), ending what was the longest postseason drought in the majors since the 1969 expansion.

This is the last edition of the postseason to not feature the Los Angeles Dodgers, who would start a streak of what is currently twelve consecutive postseason appearances the next season.

The postseason began on October 5, 2012, and ended on October 28, 2012, with the Giants sweeping the Tigers in the 2012 World Series. It was the second title in three years for the Giants and their seventh overall.

For the first time in the history of the Division Series, all four series went the maximum five games.

This is the last postseason in which the defending champions made the postseason in a leap year.