AL’s weird and wacky wild-card race

An A’s employee suggested a 10-game win streak could get his team into the American League wild-card chase, and he wasn’t kidding. That’s how goofy this competition is, a for-the-ages free-for-all that makes most teams in the league believe they’re contenders.

Even losing teams, which brings not only false hopes, dreams and strategies — but a lot of attention to mediocre baseball.

As of Tuesday morning, nine teams were legitimately in contention for two wild-card spots, and that included the Blue Jays, who have no right talking playoffs after getting swept by the Cubs over the weekend but were five games from the second wild-card spot.

It’s not as if the other teams are without flaws.

The Yankees added Sonny Gray, David Robertson and Todd Frazier to win the East only to realize that Aaron Judge is not the face of baseball and Aroldis Chapman is not the second coming of Mariano Rivera.

The Twins lost 106 games last year, moved All-Star closer Brandon Kintzler and Jaime Garcia — a Twin for all of one start — at the trade deadline and stunned themselves by winning 12 of 16.

The Angels have a rotation undermined by injuries and a lineup — give or take an Andrelton Simmons and Mike Trout (when healthy) — that has been subpar.

The Royals were 22-30 at the end of May and making fans wonder which of their core free-agents-to-be — Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar — they would trade. The answer: none.

The Mariners have two top starters, Felix Hernandez and James Paxton, on the disabled list for the second time.

The Rangers shipped their best pitcher, Yu Darvish, to the Dodgers at the deadline. A few days after waving the white flag, Texas began a 12-6 run.

The Rays have overcome injuries, inconsistent play and a lousy stadium to stay afloat, because that’s what they do.

The Orioles own the league’s worst rotation ERA but remain in wild-card purgatory.

Nothing would be finer than a bunch of so-so teams finishing with the same record and creating havoc with the tiebreaker system. Except, of course, the A’s making it more of a mess by winning 10 straight.

John Shea is The San Francisco Chronicle’s national baseball writer. Email: jshea@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey