Accustomed to the role of the favorites throughout their history, the Yankees were not favored against Tampa Bay in the ALDS and indeed bounced out early from the 2026 postseason, leaving the Rays, Guardians, Dodgers, and Brewers as the four clubs still battling for a championship.
Finding a rooting interest after your team is eliminated can be a tricky thing, and everyone has their process. Opting out is perfectly reasonable in its own right if it’s just time for you to begin the offseason baseball
hiatus. But for those who watch, the Yankees left their fans in the role of cheering for the underdog on either side of the bracket. Generally, that’s the case for most people, but here it ties into the specific relationships with each of these teams, not because of who they are, but because of who they’re facing.
Before getting to the specific points regarding the Brewers and Guardians, it hit me just now that they represent the two other organizations one of the more recently honored Yankee legends played for in CC Sabathia. Inducted into Monument Park in September, Sabathia started his career with Cleveland before a brief and incredibly successful period in Milwaukee, ultimately signing with the Yankees and being an integral part of that 2009 championship-winning squad. (CC’s son, Carsten, was also drafted by the Brewers this past July.) The Hall of Famer has already stated his obvious enthusiasm for his two former clubs who are still contending for a title.
Interestingly, although the Rays are a division rival, one could argue the rivalry with the Guardians would be even more latent—after all, no teams from the same league have played each other in the postseason as often as these two. Nevertheless, the seven playoff meetings between New York and Cleveland—five of them finishing with the Yankees advancing, including the last four—haven’t built as much animosity as you’d expect between these two franchises.
It’s kind of hard to hold a grudge against a team they’ve been able to beat three times in the playoffs since the 2020 campaign and once more not so long ago in 2017. One might even argue some of the best Yankee memories in the postseason since winning their last World Series have come against Cleveland. Furthermore, this is such an odd Cleveland team that’s confusing, reminding you of the University of Iowa football team, continuously finding ways to win despite excelling in very few areas, far from overpowering on either side of the ball.
On the other side, the resentment towards the Rays could not be higher, spending nearly the whole year trailing them in the fight for the AL East—a fight that was more theoretical than put into practice, only to lose the ALDS excruciatingly. It’s not just about what the Rays did, but what the Yankees did and did not do. So it’s easy to root against them the same way most Yankees fans cheered against Toronto in the ALCS last year, when they narrowly beat Seattle for the pennant.
When it comes to the National League, few teams can claim such lengthy periods of success in the 21st century without a World Series title to show for it. As much as a title from anyone apart from the Dodgers might further expose Yankee management and its blown opportunities to compete for the ultimate trophy because it shows it could easily be done—even now, it’s far easier for a fan to sympathize with the low-profile Brewers. The City of Milwaukee hasn’t seen a World Series champion since 1957, when the Brewers didn’t exist and the Braves had not yet moved to Atlanta. That’s not as long as Cleveland’s drought, but it’s not far off.
Although the Brewers and Yankees have been common figures in the postseason over the last 10 seasons or so, they haven’t come close to facing each other in the World Series during this period. Whenever one was on the LCS, the other wasn’t. The playoff track record between them comes from when the Brewers were a part of the AL East; they met the Yankees in the 1981 postseason due to a midseason strike creating a split season. New York advanced in a best-of-five (3-2) and eventually lost the World Series to … the Dodgers. It always comes back to them, doesn’t it?
Who would Yankees fans pick if both underdogs prevailed and made it to the Fall Classic? It’s hard to say. But honestly, most would probably be content if they were told that even one of the Dodgers or Rays got knocked out to create an easy Fall Classic rooting favorite.
