Brewers now among baseball's top powers with first World Series title

The Milwaukee Brewers might not spend like it. 

Their roster may not be loaded with future Hall of Famers. 

But they are, without question, one of the top current superpowers in Major League Baseball. There can be no denying that place following their 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night, securing the first World Series championship in franchise history.

They won the series in five games, completing one of the most dominant playoff runs the league has seen in the divisional playoff era. 

Brewers cement themselves among Major League Baseball's biggest powers

The Brewers will get their flowers for this season, and they will be recognized for the great team they have been from the very beginning of the 2026 season. 

They won a league-best 103 games during the regular season.

They went 11-2 in the playoffs, including 8-1 against the Rays and Los Angeles Dodgers, the teams that were second and third in the Major Leagues in wins. 

There was nothing soft about this run. Everything they did was at an elite level, and against the best teams in baseball. 

It is also not a new development. They have been one of the best teams in baseball for years. 

They have made the playoffs in eight of the past nine seasons, including each of the past four and won six division titles in that stretch.

Going back to the start of the 2022 season, no team in baseball has won more games in the regular season than them.

Not the Dodgers.

Not the Atlanta Braves.

Not the New York Yankees.

Not the Philadelphia Phillies.

Nobody. 

They have been doing this for years, and they have been doing it consistently. They just never had the postseason pennant or World Series hardware to justify their place with a team like the Dodgers.

Now they do. 

What makes the Brewers' run of dominance (and let's be honest, that is what it has been) is the way they have done it. While everybody else in baseball has been trying to hit home runs with giants in the batter's box, they did it through contact and the shortest roster in the league. Do not take that as them being anti-analytics or some throw-back club. They have one of the largest analytics departments in the league, and did one of the most effective sports strategies there is, especially in a league where finding cheap talent is essential for a team in their position -- they zigged when everybody else zagged. That can work. Especially if you do it right.

They also did it by completely overhauling their roster.

Go back to that 2022 season just five years ago, for example. That team won 86 games and missed the playoffs (the one year out of the past nine that the Brewers did miss). There are only four players from that team still remaining. From just five years ago. They completely overhauled everything on a limited budget, which is a fraction of what the top teams do, and continue rolling.

Really good players like Corbin Burnes, Devon Williams, Josh Hader, Freddy Peralta and Willy Adames all left or were traded. It did not matter. The pipeline and roster management just kept finding players that could slide right in and keep contributing. 

Having a player like Jacob Misiorowski emerge as a superstar and the best pitcher in baseball certainly helped and has definitely been a part of that, but it is more than just him.

It is a top-to-bottom roster with no real weaknesses, which is a testament to the job general manager Matt Arnold and his staff have done rebuilding and retooling the organization and Major League roster.

It is an identity and approach that works for them and matches up with anybody in baseball. 

It is finding and developing a bullpen that can shorten games by four innings. 

It is having a manager in Pat Murphy who consistently pushes the right buttons. 

All of that together makes them the best team in baseball. They have the trophy to prove it now. They have already been here for years. They are probably going to be here for quite a while, as well.