The Brewers had the best record in baseball during this season’s regular season and are ranked as the number one seed in the national league. The Brewers this season have set their franchise record in wins with ninety seven. They lead the league in wins and were second in batting average and ERA. The Brewers have managed all this success thanks to many players stepping up and having breakout seasons. They have managed to win while having a small payroll, and they beat their rivals, the Chicago Cubs led by former Brewer’s manager Craig Counsell in the NLDS.
The Brewers have had many rookies step up this year. Out of them all star pitcher Jacob Mizierowski, left fielder Isaac Collins, and third baseman Caleb Durbin have headlined the large group of youngsters. Jacob Mizierowski, a second round pick in 2022, was an all star and is famous for his fastball that tops out at 103 mph. Another reason the Brewers have been so successful is because of their acquisition of Andrew Vaughn. Since Andrew Vaughn’s debut on July 8th the Brewers have had the best record in baseball, 45-26.
The Brewers have managed the best record in the MLB while having the seventeenth highest payroll. The only other playoff team to have a worse payroll than the Brewers $86,966,353 payroll was the Cleveland Guardians who lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Detroit Tigers. The team with the worst payroll who still managed to win a World Series was the Marlins in 2003 with the 25th ranked payroll. A main reason the Brewers have managed to be very successful despite a low payroll is because of their many players on rookie contracts, thus they don’t have that many big name players and instead have had a lot of players with breakout seasons.
The Milwaukee Brewers played the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS and began with winning the series 2-1. In the first game the Cubs leadoff hitter Michael Busch hit a leadoff homer in the first inning followed by a Brewers answer of six runs hitting 3 doubles in a row to open the game. After that there were no lead changes but the Brewers ended up winning 9-3. In the second game against the Cubs, the Cubs scored three runs in the top of the first but the Brewers answered back with three runs in the first inning and then kept scoring throughout the game while the Cubs were shutout through the last eight frames. In the third game of the series the Brewers played at Wrigley Field and had a heart breaking loss to the Cubs with a final score of 3-4. The Brewers proceeded to lose once again at Wrigley field in game 4 and then won 3-1 in game 5 at Amfam to win the series. The Brewers beat the Cubs who are led by former Brewers manager Craig Counsell. Craig Counsell grew up in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin and played for the Brewers during his 15 year MLB career, but he decided to leave the Brewers for the Cubs who offered him a lot more money.
The Brewers have been great this season due to many rookies and young players stepping up, they have won the most games in the MLB while being a small market team, and the Brewers beat their arch rivals the Cubs in the first round of the playoffs. The Brewers are currently facing the Dodgers in the NLCS.
References
“MLB team salary payroll tracker,” Spotrac, spotrac, 2025. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/_/year/2025
“Baseball Reference,” Baseball Reference, Baseball Reference, October ninth 2025. https://www.baseball-reference.com/
