Sports News
Both No. 1 seeds are from smaller markets. Will that matter in the playoffs? Or in the labor fight?
One of the game’s smallest markets was baseball’s biggest winner during the regular season.
For the second year in a row.
The Milwaukee Brewers won their final five games this week to finish with a franchise-record 103 victories. That’s after they set the previous team mark with 97 last season — a total that also led the major leagues.
The 2026 Brewers had the best run differential in baseball, and they enter the playoffs with perhaps the game’s most watchable star. With Shohei Ohtani not pitching at the moment, has Jacob Misiorowski surpassed him as the sport’s must-see attraction?
Either way, the Brewers might be baseball’s biggest story heading into this postseason. They haven’t won a pennant since 1982, and they’ve never won a World Series, but this is their fourth straight playoff appearance and eighth in nine years. And you can bet their performance from here forward will be viewed against the backdrop of baseball’s competitive balance and a likely labor dispute in the offseason.
As much as the regular season is a grueling test of consistent excellence, it’s still the postseason that sticks in the minds of fans and casual observers. The big-spending Los Angeles Dodgers won the last two World Series, and that’s gone a long way toward creating the impression that baseball needs substantial changes.
Now, the Brewers — who have ranked dead last in the collective bargaining agreement’s revenue sharing “market score” — are the top seed in the National League. And another team from a smaller market, Tampa Bay, is the top seed in the AL. Cleveland is also in the postseason and has a first-round bye in the American League.
It’s naive to think one year’s results would have a huge effect on negotiations between the union and management, but if the Brewers, Rays or Guardians go all the way, that could certainly change the narrative a bit.