When the season is over, the standings are the final arbiter: Either you’re in the playoffs or you’re not.

But before the season is over, the standings are a moving target, because they lack one key piece of information: Which opponents everybody has played already, and which opponents remain. The standings can’t tell you about strength of schedule. Only the schedule can tell you that.

Well, we’ve looked at the schedules for every team left in the playoff chase, and it’s clear that certain teams are far better situated than others. Want to know what the standings don’t? Here’s a look at the three playoff-contending teams I believe have the easiest schedules moving forward … and the three with the hardest.

Note: Each team below is listed with its remaining strength of schedule (SoS), and MLB rank, per FanGraphs, entering Tuesday, although this figure was not the sole determining factor in the list below.

3 contenders with an “easy” path

Cubs
Remaining SoS (rank): .479 (30th)
The bad news is that they’ve exhausted all their games against their South Side rivals, the White Sox. (They went 4-0, of course.) The good news is that they have series against four other last-place teams in the Blue Jays, A’s, Rockies and Marlins. They also have seven games against the Nationals. Of the Cubs’ remaining 40 games after Wednesday’s series finale in Cleveland, only nine are against teams with winning records, including none until they host the Yankees from Sept. 6-8. The Cubs have crawled their way back into the Wild Card picture over the last week. The path moving forward is beginning to clear up for them.

Yankees
Remaining SoS (rank): .486 (29th)
For what it’s worth, the Orioles – the team the Yankees are battling for first place in the AL East – don’t have a particularly grueling schedule down the stretch (.498 SoS), with 12 games total against the Tigers, Rockies and White Sox. But with those teams neck-and-neck with each other right now, it’s should be noted that the Yankees have the advantage in the scheduling department. They have three games each against the Rockies, A’s, Tigers, Nationals and White Sox, not to mention three against the reeling Rangers. The Yankees have a fascinating couple of home series against Missouri teams and a series each against the Guardians and Red Sox – teams that always want to beat the Yankees, badly – but all told, the toughest three games the Yankees have left are against … the Orioles. That will take place from Sept. 24-26 in the Bronx and could settle this race once and for all.

Braves
Remaining SoS (rank): .490 (27th)
Atlanta has endured tough luck all season, losing Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider early and a whole bunch of other stars from its roster along the way. But one thing the Braves, who entered Tuesday one game up on the Mets for the final NL Wild Card spot, do have in their favor is the schedule. After they get this four-game set with the Giants out of their way this week, they have a whopping 17 games against teams far out of the playoff chase, including eight with their division foes from Washington and Miami. Sure, they’ve got seven left with the Phillies and four with the Dodgers, but there are also a whole lot of friendlier matchups mixed in there, including an early-September homestand against the Rockies and Blue Jays.

3 contenders with a difficult path

Guardians
Remaining SoS (rank): .510 (3rd)
The Guardians are pedaling as fast as they can to stay ahead of the Twins and Royals in the AL Central, and the road they’re biking isn’t going to get much easier. Sure, it’s nice that they have three games left with the White Sox. But they also have series against three other first-place teams in the Astros, Brewers and Dodgers, and another against a division contender in the Yankees. And while in the past they might have gotten some refuge from the AL Central, that’s not really the case in 2024. Those two teams that are chasing them will get every chance to take them down, as the Twins have four games against the Guardians, while the Royals have seven. If the Guardians are going to win this division, they sure are going to have to earn it.

Royals
Remaining SoS (rank): .509 (4th)
Speaking of the AL Central, the Royals aren’t getting much of a free ride, either. Those seven games against the Guardians are the most pressing problem, but hardly the only one. The Royals also have series against four clubs pushing for division titles: those Guardians, plus the Yankees, Phillies and Astros. Add that to three more games against the Twins after this week’s series ends and a potentially fascinating three-game set in Atlanta to close the season, and the Royals are up against it as much as the Guardians are. You know who is set to benefit? The Twins, who get 16 games against losing teams. Though in the AL Central, it may just come down to how these teams play against each other. And the schedule won’t help anybody there.

Cardinals
Remaining SoS (rank): .508 (6th)
It has been easy to be skeptical of the Cardinals as a legitimate postseason contender. Their two stars, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, are both having the worst seasons of their careers. Their rotation is old and rapidly fraying. Young players Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman haven’t panned out. They have one of the worst run differentials in baseball, let alone among contending teams. But the primary reason to be skeptical is their brutal late-season schedule. When they complete their three-game set with the Reds this week, they won’t play another team that’s not currently within a game of a playoff spot until Sept. 10 … when they get the Reds again. That gauntlet would be brutal for any team, let alone one with as many question marks as the Cardinals. If they can survive that, they get the Reds, Blue Jays, Pirates, Guardians, Rockies and Giants down the stretch, which is much easier. But they’ll be lucky to still be afloat by then.