Score one for the small market teams. At least for now. While much of the discourse around Major League Baseball has focused on the disparity between big market teams and small market teams, the Milwaukee Brewers, with a bottom 10 payroll, advanced to the NLCS on Saturday night with a 3-1, Game 5 win over the Chicago Cubs.
They defeated one major market Goliath in the Cubs. Now an even bigger Goliath awaits with the Los Angeles Dodgers on the horizon.
Here are some takeaways from the Brewers’ Game 5 win.
The Brewers front office continues to find ways to compete
The Brewers don’t spend a lot of money, at least not compared to the top teams in the league. In recent years, they have parted ways with established stars such as starting pitcher Corbin Burnes and closer Devin Williams. Despite all the financial disadvantages and the fact that they play in one of the smallest markets in baseball, their front office continues to find ways to produce good teams.
The 2025 season marks their seventh playoff appearance in the last eight years, while this is their second NLCS trip in that span.
Part of that is the fact that they’ve been able to build a pipeline of young talent across their farming system to keep replenishing the pantry.
Players like Sal Frelick, Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang (who hit a solo home run on Saturday) have developed into everyday position players. Jacob Misiorowski (who threw four strong innings on Saturday) is one of the young phenom pitchers in baseball.
But they’ve also complemented them perfectly with clever outside additions that snuck under the radar.
When they acquired Andrew Vaughn from the Chicago White Sox this offseason, it was easy to overlook him because he was a fringe player who had largely failed to deliver on his draft position. He was one of the Brewers’ best hitters and hit a solo home run in Saturday’s winning game.
Starting pitcher Quinn Priester did not settle in Pittsburgh or Boston, but found his niche with the Brewers.
They’re just a well-managed team that excelled at the margins. Now it’s four wins from winning the pennant.
Can Milwaukee’s smart management surpass the Dodgers’ unlimited budget?
That will be the big question. It’s one thing to win the National League Central and win a playoff series or two on a shoestring budget. It’s quite another to eliminate the defending World Series champions, especially when that team has by far the highest payroll in baseball and an extensive list of All-Stars on their roster and pitching staff.
We’ve seen teams like Milwaukee and the Tampa Bay Rays punch above their weight class over the course of a 162-game season and even a few playoff series before running into teams with superstars.
The teams with superstars generally tend to win.
That will be the challenge for the Brewers in the NLCS.
Cubs come with questions during the offseason
Now that the Cubs’ season has come to an end, their focus turns to an offseason full of questions.
The biggest of those questions is whether or not they have a chance to re-sign outfielder Kyle Tucker, and what direction they go if they can’t.
When the Cubs originally traded for him before the season, they knew there was a chance it would be a one-and-done season with him, so it was imperative to go all-in for 2025. Whether or not they did that is up for debate. In the end, all that matters is that they didn’t end up in the World Series. Now the work begins to return to this level and take the next step.
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