The Brewers and Rays are in the World Series, and commissioner Rob Manfred wasted no time using that matchup to make his case.
Before the 2026 World Series began, Manfred pointed to two small-market clubs at the center of the sport’s biggest stage. Milwaukee was 20th in payroll and 19th in competitive-balance tax measurements; Tampa Bay sat 28th and 27th.
“I think it shows that we leave a lot on the table in some of our smaller markets by not having them have an opportunity to compete on a regular basis. The Brewers have been a well-run franchise forever.
It’s been 40 years since we’re here. Once every 40 years is not enough.”
That line fits neatly into the league’s broader push for a salary cap, but the larger point is more complicated than simply saying the rich teams always win. Baseball is still a competition, and the results keep proving that there’s more than one way to build a contender.
The Brewers and Rays are in this World Series, and Cleveland was nearly there too; the Guardians are dead last in payroll. Teams such as Milwaukee and Tampa Bay have leaned on heavy investment in analytics and scouting to offset financial gaps that would still leave them well short of clubs like the Dodgers even if they spent every dollar they had.
Los Angeles’ recent run is part of the story, too. The Dodgers won back-to-back World Series and three of the last six, but those were also the last consecutive titles in the sport since the Yankees won three straight in a stretch that ended in 2000. Money matters, but it has never been the only route to a championship.
The bigger issue has been the way some clubs treated losing as a business model. For years, teams tanked in hopes of winning later, even though the math never promised that everyone could cash in at once.
Then some went a step further and decided there was no real reason to try hard in the first place if cutting corners saved money. That habit has faded somewhat under the current collective bargaining agreement.
Milwaukee is one of the clearest examples. The Brewers are 20th in payroll, but they spent $125 million on their Opening Day roster and reached a franchise-high year-end 40-man figure of $144 million.
It’s a club that used to live near the bottom of the payroll table. As the team has played better baseball more consistently, Milwaukee has started spending more, even if there’s still an argument that Mark Attanasio has more money to use than he’ll say.
At this point, though, the Brewers are not the problem. More broadly, half the league is projected to spend between $182 million and $347 million in 2026, and the Mets sit at $347 million.
Manfred also noted that it had been 44 years since Milwaukee’s last World Series appearance, but the full picture is messier than payroll alone. Not all of that gap came from rich opponents flexing financial muscle.
Some of it came from the Brewers themselves, and some from the league structure of the time. Milwaukee won 93 games in 1978 and 95 in 1979 and still missed the postseason both years, finishing second and third when that amounted to as good as last.
The Brewers did reach the odd 1981 postseason after the strike changed the format, then got back to the World Series in 1982 by winning 95 games, taking the AL East and beating one postseason opponent in one postseason series.
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