The Dodgers still loom over the sport, but they are not the only club with a path to the World Series. Even with Los Angeles looking mortal since the MLB trade deadline, there are four teams that can realistically push them and win it all in 2026.
Start with the Milwaukee Brewers, a club that doesn’t always win the beauty contest but keeps stacking victories. Milwaukee has spent most of the season on top of the NL Central, and while that cushion has shrunk over the last month, the Brewers are still in first place.
Entering this week, they own the best record in Major League Baseball. The offense has quietly been strong, sitting in the top 10 in runs, hits, batting average, and OPS.
The real edge, though, has been on the mound. Milwaukee leads the league in wins and ranks second in ERA and WHIP, the kind of profile that can travel in October.
Boston has made a sharp climb of its own. The Red Sox were buried at the bottom of the AL East before Willson Contreras single-handedly put the team on his back.
Since then, they’ve surged, picked up big road wins, and pushed themselves into a Wild Card spot. They’ve found timely hits along the way, and their defense has been among the league’s best, ranking fourth.
The pitching staff has held up too, sitting fourth in ERA, seventh in WHIP, and 12th in strikeouts. It hasn’t always been pretty, but it has worked.
The Yankees are in the mix as well, and they’ve done it for much of the season without superstar Aaron Judge. What jumps out most is the rotation.
Cam Schlittler, in his second season, is the favorite for the AL Cy Young Award, and Max Fried and Gerrit Cole give New York what may be the best one, two, three punch in baseball. The offense has lagged near the bottom in hits, OBP, and OPS, but the pitching staff has been good enough to protect leads.
That kind of formula can carry a team a long way in the postseason.
Then there’s Chicago, which has been through its own roller coaster. The Cubs have looked elite, then uneven, then elite again.
Their offense has been the driver all season, and they’ve kept winning even while losing nearly eight starting pitchers for an extended period. The front office stepped in at the trade deadline to patch up the pitching staff, and the team has been led by superstar outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
PCA is the one man who beat out Los Angeles’ Shohei Ohtani for the NL MVP Award.
In Other News...
Brewers Catching Future Suddenly Feels Far Less Secure
Milwaukee has never been shy about making a hard call when it believes the contract number is going to outgrow the relationship, and that history is part of why the organizations catching picture suddenly feels less settled. William Contreras gave the Brewers exactly what they hoped for in 2024, pairing his usual offense with strong work behind the plate and earning his third All-Star nod, but his profile now sits at the center of a familiar kind of offseason uncertainty.
The front office has shown before that it will move a star rather than stretch too far on an extension, and that is why this winter is drawing so much attention around the position. If the Brewers are already bracing for a tough negotiation, their recent addition of Bo Naylor only adds to the sense that they may be preparing for a different future behind the plate, even if nothing has been decided yet. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Bring Bryse Wilson Back As Another Bullpen Arm Pays The Price
Bryse Wilson is back in the Brewers bullpen mix after the club brought him back on a major league contract following his brief trip to free agency. The move keeps Milwaukees relief depth in motion, and it comes with the kind of roster churn that has become familiar at this stage of the season, when every active and 40-man spot matters and the front office has to keep balancing immediate coverage with longer-term flexibility.
Lyon Richardson lost his roster spot to make room, underscoring how thin the margins are for pitchers without options. Both Richardson and Wilson are out of options, which means either one could choose free agency if he clears waivers, leaving the Brewers to navigate another small but meaningful bullpen shuffle as they try to preserve as much depth as possible. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Just Took Another Bullpen Hit During A Brutal Roster Shuffle
The Brewers bullpen shuffle kept churning this week, with Milwaukee moving on from right-hander Bryse Wilson after designating him for assignment and watching him elect free agency once he cleared waivers. The roster move was part of a broader adjustment triggered by the loss of shortstop Cooper Pratt, which pushed the club to bring in Ji Hwan Bae and open a spot by designating left-hander Drew Rom.
Roms departure is the kind of fringe-roster loss that can sneak up on a pitching staff, especially when a team is trying to preserve depth through constant injury-driven moves. Milwaukee has been forced to keep balancing short-term roster needs against the longer view of who might still matter in the bullpen mix, and this latest round only added another layer of uncertainty to that equation. [Read more 🡒]