Entering this season, only five teams had never won a World Series: the Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays, and Colorado Rockies. The Brewers already had to go through one of those teams to get to this point, defeating the Padres in four games in the NLDS. They then took out the Dodgers, who were going for a third consecutive World Series title. Now, they have to take out one more team to finish the job, and it’s another team that has never won a title before —
the Rays.
Earlier today, Harrison looked at the current connections between these two teams. However, these two teams have been connected since the Rays were founded in 1998. They have had similar struggles, but also similar success. Over the past 28 years, these two teams have been building up to this moment, working through those struggles and that success to get here.
The connection between these two teams starts all the way back in 1995, when MLB was in the process of expanding from 28 teams to 30. They awarded expansion franchises to two cities — Phoenix and Tampa Bay. One was placed in each league, bringing each up to 15 teams starting in 1998. However, that caused a problem since interleague play was not part of the schedule yet. If they left it as is, one team in each league would be forced to be idle every day. Their solution was to move one team from the American League to the National League, and the Milwaukee Brewers were chosen to move. Instead of the Brewers and Rays both playing in the AL, they ended up in different leagues.
These two teams then saw their first modern success in the same season. In 2008, the Brewers ended a 26-year postseason drought when they clinched the NL Wild Card spot (only one was awarded at this time) on the final day of the season. In that same season, the Rays made a drastic turnaround. After rebranding and dropping the “Devil” from their name, they won a team-record 97 games and won the AL East, clinching the second seed. Prior to that year, they had not won more than 70 games in a year. Their drought was considerably shorter — this was only their 11th season in MLB — but it was still history for them.
That year’s postseason was drastically different for the two teams. The Brewers’ run was short, falling to the Phillies in four games in the NLDS. They did claim their first postseason win since 1982, but that was about it. On the other side, the Rays made a postseason run. They defeated the third-seed White Sox in four games, then the fourth-seed Red Sox in seven games. Their run would end against the Phillies in the World Series, losing in five games.
From there, the teams had different trajectories over the next few seasons. The Brewers only made it back to the postseason once in the next decade — in 2011, when they won the NL Central for the first time and made it to the NLCS, losing to the Cardinals in six games. The Rays made three more postseason appearances, winning the AL East again in 2010. They then claimed the AL Wild Card spot in 2011 and one of two spots in 2013 (the second Wild Card spot was added in 2012). However, they didn’t advance past the ALDS in any of those three years.
Both teams then entered a period of rebuilding. The Brewers didn’t make it to the playoffs for six straight seasons between 2012 and 2017 before breaking that streak in 2018, when they won the NL Central for the second time. The Rays missed the playoffs for five straight seasons between 2014 and 2018, but broke that streak in 2019 when they claimed one of the two AL Wild Card spots.
Since then, both teams have been regular participants in the postseason. The Rays made it to the postseason in five straight seasons from 2019 to 2023. They had another World Series run in that period, losing to the Dodgers in six games in the shortened 2020 season. The Rays also led the AL in 2021 with 100 wins, their only 100-win season in franchise history.
Meanwhile, following the 2018 postseason run to the NLCS, the Brewers clinched Wild Card spots in 2019 and 2020 (the latter as a 29-31 team in a season that featured five Wild Card teams in each league). They then won the NL Central in five of the next six seasons, only narrowly missing the postseason in 2022.
The Brewers and Rays now enter the 2026 World Series at the top of their leagues. The Brewers won the NL Central for the seventh time. It’s also their four straight title and fifth in the last six seasons. The Rays won the AL East for the first time since 2021, and it was their fifth division title. Both teams led their leagues in wins, with the Brewers also recording their first 100-win season in franchise history with 103 wins.
That sets up what will be a historic World Series. For only the second time in the last 100 years, the World Series will feature two teams that have never won a title. The only other occurrence happened in 1980, when the Phillies defeated the Royals for their first title. You have to go back to 1920 to find the previous occurrence before that one, when the Cleveland Indians faced the Brooklyn Robins. It’s also guaranteed to be a first-time winner for the first time since 2023, when the Rangers won.
It’s going to be a hard-fought series to get to that final goal. History will be made either way. It all starts in just two days in Milwaukee.
