Brewers vs. Rays: The World Series Clash Hiding Secrets That Could Change Everything

Jonathan Aranda: It took a couple of years for Aranda to establish himself in the bigs despite monster numbers for Triple-A Durham. But the lefty – he originally signed as an international free agent out of Mexico way back in 2015 – rose to the occasion last year, and became a bona fide threat in 2026, bashing 22 homers with a 121 OPS+ and 92 RBIs. He generally occupies a very important spot in the Rays’ offensive equation, as the dangerous left-handed bat wedged between Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminero (more on those two in a moment) at the top of the lineup.
Either the Brewers or Rays will win the World Series for the first time. Both smaller-market franchises are thriving through drafting, trades and development.

Bryan Baker: OK, so maybe Baker isn’t a traditional reclamation project – he struggled a bit in 2024 and ’25 but wasn’t horrible – yet his transformation still has been incredible. The Rays took a pitcher with a career 3.86 ERA and made him into one of baseball’s best closers. Baker, in his age-31 season, tied for the MLB lead with 41 saves and posted a 1.44 ERA, with opposing batters hitting just .161 against him. In the postseason, he’s been immaculate: five saves in seven shutout innings, with only one hit and two walks allowed.

Cam Booser: The lefty didn’t make it past High-A ball in his first attempt at a pro career, then after a few years out of pro baseball, he started pitching in the independent American Association at 29 years old in 2021. He hooked on for a few months with the Arizona Diamondbacks before he was released in July 2022. The next February he signed with the Boston Red Sox and made his MLB debut just a few weeks shy of his 32nd birthday. He was traded to the White Sox for the 2025 season and had a 5.52 ERA in 39 games. The Rays signed him this January, and he started the season in Triple-A, finally getting the call back to the bigs in June. From there, he’s been lights out. Booser had a 1.98 ERA in 42 outings in the regular season and has thrown 4 2/3 scoreless innings in the postseason, allowing just one hit and one walk.

Jackson Chourio: The Brewers gave the outfielder a lofty signing bonus as a 16-year-old out of Venezuela and he’s returned that investment many times over. He’s been a 20/20 player in each of his three seasons (though he’s yet to reach 600 plate appearances) and the Brewers are at their best when he’s in the lineup. He’s played in five postseason series and homered at least once in every one.

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What are the odds that the 2026 World Series features a pair of small-market darlings—Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays—both chasing their very first championship? It’s a classic underdog story, fueled not by flashy free-agent splurges but by relentless drafting, savvy trades, and top-notch player development. And here’s a twist for you: the marquee subplot isn’t just which team hoists the trophy, but Freddy Peralta—a former Brewer now pitching for the Rays—dueling his old mates. Amidst looming labor drama threatening to spill over into spring training, this series offers a fascinating contrast of front-office brilliance and on-field grit. So, who’s got the edge? My gut says Brewers in seven, but with both teams mastering roster building and resurrection projects, expect fireworks that extend far beyond the diamond. LEARN MORE.

2026 World Series

Yandy Diaz: Hey, remember how Cleveland (the team Tampa Bay beat in the ALCS) has long struggled to find consistent sources of offense? Not only did the Rays acquire Caminero from Cleveland, but that’s where they got Diaz, too, as part of a three-team deal with Seattle way back in 2018. Ironically, Jake Bauers (more on him in a moment) went from Tampa Bay to Cleveland in that very same deal. Anyway, Diaz has been one of the AL’s best right-handed hitters for several years now.

• Game 1 (Oct. 23): Rays at Brewers 
• Game 2 (Oct. 24): Rays at Brewers 
• Game 3 (Oct. 26): Brewers at Rays 
• Game 4 (Oct. 27): Brewers at Rays
• *Game 5 (Oct. 28): Brewers at Rays 
• *Game 6 (Oct. 30): Rays at Brewers 
• *Game 7 (Oct. 31): Rays at Brewers

Chandler Simpson: The Rays are elite at taking a player’s skill and helping them make the most of that at the big-league level. With Simpson, a second-round pick in 2022 out of Georgia Tech, that’s his speed. He has 90 stolen bases over the past two seasons, with the confidence to run wild (despite being thrown out 26 times). He’s a contact hitter with the ability to turn singles into doubles with regularity and cause chaos when he’s on the base paths.

Homegrown Stars

Milwaukee Brewers

Both teams have put on a masterclass in roster building, and one will be rewarded with the first World Series in franchise history.

Brice Turang: Drafted 21st overall in 2018 out of high school, the lefty hitter has been better than most realize. Turang’s bWAR over the past three years is 17.6, which puts him fifth in all of baseball behind Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr., and Pete Crow-Armstrong. Lofty company. In 2024, he was a speedy second baseman (50 stolen bases) without much pop (35 total extra-base hits). In 2026, he reached 100 RBIs with 61 extra-base hits (including 21 home runs) and posted a career-best 124 OPS+.

We’ll leave that to the others, though. On the field, these two teams are fascinating. They’ve drafted well. They’ve developed well. They’ve brought players back to (baseball) life. And they’ve identified players on other rosters to snag in trades.

Tampa Bay Rays

Truth is, with the looming labor dispute – and, let’s be real, an inevitable lockout extending at least well into spring training (best case-scenario) – never in the history of baseball has a championship matchup of two franchises be examined more for the off-the-field ramifications than anything related to the product on the field.

Junior Caminero: Once upon a time, the Rays cooked up a massive deal, sending Tobias Myers to Cleveland for Caminero. Oh wait, nobody noticed that 2021 trade. So, basically a signature Tampa Bay deal. Myers never even pitched in the bigs for the Guardians, and Caminero is the most feared slugger in the World Series. The third baseman topped 40 homers for the second season in a row – he hit 87 in his first two full big-league seasons – while nearly doubling his walk total from 2025 and lowering his strikeout rate a touch. Was the Game 6 homer in the ALCS, the one that basically clinched Tampa Bay’s trip to the World Series, just a sign of things to come? The Brewers hope not.

Trade Gems

Tampa Bay Rays

William Contreras: Thing is, Contreras wasn’t even considered the best catcher in the three-team deal that landed him in Milwaukee in December 2022. That was Sean Murphy, who went from Oakland to Atlanta. But Atlanta’s fixation on acquiring Murphy made Contreras expendable (why? who knows?) and Milwaukee jumped at the chance. He’s been a fixture ever since, as a leader behind the plate and as a source of power in the lineup.

Jacob Misiorowski: The 6-foot-7 Pokemon fan will be announced as the NL Cy Young winner after the postseason – he had a 1.80 ERA and 13.0 K/9 in the regular season – but he’d like to add a World Series trophy to his case before that happens. The challenge for The Miz against the Rays will be keeping his pitch count down, no easy task considering both how many swing-and-misses he generates and Tampa Bay’s ability to be patient and work counts. Realistically, the Brewers will be thrilled with five stellar innings in each of his starts.

Milwaukee Brewers

Andrew Vaughn: He was the No. 3 overall pick of the 2019 MLB Draft – one spot after Bobby Witt Jr. – but Vaughn struggled to reach expectations (or, y’know, even find consistency) with the Chicago White Sox through his first four seasons in the majors. Then in 2025, the bottom fell out. He had just a 47 OPS+ through 48 games when the Brewers sent a disgruntled Aaron Civale to Chicago for Vaughn. Even if Vaughn continued to struggle, it was seen as an addition-by-subtraction thing for Milwaukee. But the first baseman was rejuvenated: He hit .309 with a 141 OPS+ the rest of the season, then followed that with a .306 average and 130 OPS+ this year. He’s been especially effective against lefties, posting a .336/.421/.517 slash line against them in 2026.

Yep, that’s it. Nothing else worth mentioning. Just a World Series reunion of sorts.

Resurrection Projects

Milwaukee Brewers

Christian Yelich: No delusions here. At 34, Yelich is not what he once was. But his arrival, in a 2018 trade with the Miami Marlins, made a forever impact on the franchise, and that respect is reflected by the “C” on his uniform. He’s not done yet, though, as evidenced by his .357 average in the NLDS against the San Diego Padres. If the Brewers’ storybook season is going to end with a World Series title, it’s hard to imagine Yelich won’t have a few big moments of his own.

Just for the record: Brewers in 7. (They were our pick before the playoffs began.) The Opta projection model also favors the Brewers, giving them a 61.2% World Series win probability.

Tampa Bay Rays

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The biggest storyline of the 2026 World Series, of course, concerns Tampa Bay Rays starter Freddy Peralta facing his former teammates on the Milwaukee Brewers. Obviously.

Freddy Peralta: As mentioned, Peralta was Milwaukee’s ace for a couple years. But that’s not why he’s in this category. The Brewers traded the impending free agent to the New York Mets last offseason (as part of the normal churn of a smaller-market franchise) and Peralta looked lost in his new surroundings. His 4.99 ERA didn’t reflect how bad he looked at times, and trading him to the Rays for three minor-leaguers was New York’s attempt to get something – anything – to salvage that trade with Milwaukee. His first few Tampa Bay starts were rough, but as the Rays rebuilt his confidence and got him to focus on his strengths, the results followed. Peralta had a 0.79 in his final six regular-season starts, and he’s been just as good in the playoffs, with a 1.08 ERA in three starts and one short but key relief appearance in the ALCS.

Let’s take a look at a few such categories. These lists are not exhaustive, but just a couple examples for each category.

Jake Bauers: As you’ve no doubt heard multiple times over the past week or so, Bauers was close to retiring after batting .199 in 2024 and might have done so if not for the desire to keep health insurance for his family. From 2017 through 2024, Bauers played for Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Seattle, Cincinnati, New York (Yankees) and then Milwaukee. He felt comfortable in Milwaukee, so he re-signed for 2025 and came into his own in 2026. Bauers posted a .389 on-base percentage to go with 26 homers and a 140 OPS+. Then in the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, his homer off lefty Blake Snell was, arguably, the signature moment.