For the first time in the franchise’s history, the Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions. Tortured Brewers fans can die in peace, because the Brewers just finished one of the more impressive, beginning-to-end seasons you’ll see in baseball.
They led all of Major League Baseball in wins at 103 this season. They led the league in team batting average, first in on base percentage and second in runs batted in, despite being tied for second-to-last in home runs. On the pitching side, Milwaukee was second in baseball in earned run average and strikeouts. Milwaukee was the best team in the regular season, and polished it off by being the best team in October, going 11-2 in the postseason while toppling three of the best teams in baseball: the Padres, Dodgers and Rays.
The 2026 baseball season brought a lot of discourse. This included chatter around proposing salary caps, a potential lockout that could take games from the 2027 campaign and how the Dodgers were inevitably going to win — and in some fan’s opinions, buy — a third consecutive World Series, because a lack of salary cap and financial advantages of a big market allow the Dodgers to poach some of the top talent in baseball. Take, for example, their acquisition of the two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline.
Alas, the Brewers proved to the baseball world that being flush with cash is far from necessary to succeed at the difficult task of being the last team standing. One of the most well-run organizations in baseball, a well-oiled machine of Wisconsin, finally reached the summit, and it appears as though they won’t be going away anytime soon.
After last season, the Brewers caught flack for trading their best pitcher, Freddy Peralta, to the New York Mets, getting assets back before Peralta could walk as a free agent or demand a more lucrative contract. The idea that the team with the best record in baseball would decide not to pay the $8 million that was owed to Peralta to keep him for another postseason run felt asinine to fans.
But the Brewers believed in what they had, and rightfully so. They kicked off the 2026 season with the top-rated farm system in baseball, and many still consider them to be the best, as they’re flush with young talent, some of whom helped them win their first World Series.
Milwaukee doesn’t spend the way Los Angeles or the New York teams do. They won’t be the team to make a huge splash in the offseason and acquire a top-end name. They have to win by getting the small decisions right and developing young talent, and they do that better than anybody.
The lanky, flame-throwing Jacob Misiorowski had a breakout year, which is about to win him his first NL Cy Young award. Logan Henderson was a solid number two option when healthy this season. Cooper Pratt, the 21-year-old shortstop, was a midseason call-up who was arguably their second best hitter in the playoffs and was third on the squad in runs batted in in October. The bullpen was perfectly constructed and contained maybe the scariest 1-2-3 punch in baseball of Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby — who threw 18 innings of postseason ball and allowed zero earned runs — and Trevor Megill.
Jake Bauers, a 30-year-old first baseman who took the starting job after Rhys Hoskins’ departure, and a guy who almost quit the game after 2024 but returned to ensure his family had health insurance, torched the Dodgers. He drove in three runs in the NLCS-clinching game and won himself NLCS MVP on the way.
This is Brewer ball. They find a way to maximize talent and play small ball. They don’t rely on the home run. They don’t make splashy free agent signings. They string together rallies, put the ball in play, run the bases well, get the most out of pitchers and play clean defense. Milwaukee is the epitome of good, fundamental baseball. And they do all of this without writing blank checks.
The Brewers, Dodgers, Rays and Guardians were the final four teams standing. The Dodgers were at the top of the league in spending. The other three teams were in the bottom half of league spending. Milwaukee had the 19th highest payroll this season, Tampa Bay was 28th and Cleveland was dead last in 30th.
Some will look at those numbers and say that it’s evidence that nothing about the financial structure of baseball needs to change. Some will ask what could have been if these teams spent a little more. I don’t think there’s an end-all be-all, correct solution to address the financial disparity in baseball. Certain markets will have bigger advantages. If there’s a salary cap, I believe there also has to be a salary floor, to force cheap owners who want to cash a check every year to have incentive to put a better product on the field.
But even if nothing were to change — no salary cap is introduced, owners continue to not spend money out of selfish desires, player salaries remain the same, revenue is more evenly distributed among teams and players — the Brewers have proved that hiring the right people and going the extra mile to find talent is enough in itself to reach the mountaintop of baseball.
Maile Pollington