Every contender is built a little differently. That’s certainly the case for this year’s MLB final four.
We have baseball’s biggest revenue team and three clubs that have won with youth and/or efficient spending. We have four franchises with entirely different historical contexts. There are many paths to winning in baseball; here are the ones taken by the last four teams standing in the 2026 season.
How the Milwaukee Brewers were built
Roster style: Young and athletic.
On the heels of a period during which the Brewers featured a power-based lineup full of strikeout-prone sluggers -- remember the “jumbo infield” of the last decade? -- Milwaukee began to put more emphasis on athleticism and contact hitting when it came to their position players, while encouraging situational awareness all through their system. This year’s club is the most advanced manifestation of that approach.
On the pitching side, the Brewers are a mix of internally developed hurlers such as Jacob Misiorowski, Robert Gasser and Logan Henderson, along with a number of acquired pitchers. Milwaukee has had an inordinate amount of success in coaxing better results from such pitchers.
Payroll power: Bottom third.
Per Cot’s Contracts, the highest the Brewers have ranked in Opening Day payroll during their current 10-year run of success is 17th, back in 2019. They’ve won four straight National League Central titles while ranking no higher than 20th, where they were in 2026. Milwaukee has an avid and loyal fanbase that keeps attendance numbers strong. But for now, the non-attendance revenue potential of the Brewers is constricted by their market size.
Homegrown percentage: 32%
According to Fangraphs, the Brewers’ 40-man roster is 32% homegrown, ranking 20th, while the 26-man roster is at 38%, ranking 15th. The latter measure is the highest of the four remaining teams. The Brewers tend to acquire external players via trades and waiver claims as opposed to free agency.
Signature signing: prospect extensions
Backup catcher Gary Sanchez is the only veteran free agent on the roster. The signings that have been more in step with the Brewers’ philosophy have been extensions, especially to some of their most talented prospects. Jackson Chourio, Cooper Pratt and Luis Lara each signed extensions prior to reaching the majors.
Best trade they’ve made: Christian Yelich from Miami, 2018
The Jan. 25, 2018, trade for Christian Yelich is one of the defining moments for the current era of Brewers baseball. He won NL MVP honors in his first season and finished second in the balloting the season after. Even as injuries have prevented him from maintaining that level of play, Yelich has continued as a face of the franchise. Along with injured pitcher Brandon Woodruff, Yelich has provided continuity and familiarity as the roster, manager and GM have changed over the years. And, not for nothing, the four players the Brewers sent to Miami in the deal are out of all out of the majors and finished with a combined minus-5.9 career bWAR.
Biggest reclamation project success: Jake Bauers, 2026
This area is a specialty of the Brewers, so a typical season would see at least a couple of examples. It’s one of the qualities that makes Milwaukee such a difficult team to project. At midseason, the easy answer here would be pitcher Kyle Harrison but because he faltered late in the season, the still-easy answer is first baseman Bauers.
Never able to establish himself while bouncing around the majors, Bauers finally broke out at age 30 and in his third season for the Brewers. Before 2026, Bauers had a career OPS+ of 84 and was below replacement value (minus-1.2 bWAR). This season, Bauers had a 140 OPS+, put up 3.3 bWAR and led the Brewers with 26 home runs.
Historical baggage: Overpacked.
This is an esoteric way to describe the fact that the Brewers are one of five franchises never to win a title. The “mostly” part applies to the city, because Milwaukee did win a World Series in 1957 when the Braves still resided there. The Brewers have won a single pennant, but that came in the American League, so an NL flag still eludes them as well. Lots of boxes could be checked in the weeks to come.
How the Los Angeles Dodgers were built
Roster style: Star power.
As much as the Dodgers flex their economic might, they are also a top-to-bottom showcase for the current suite of best practices in the baseball industry. Yet, there is no denying the star power on the L.A. roster, nor the payroll commitments that have allowed this collection of All-Stars and Hall of Famers to come together.
Think of it like this: According to Baseball Reference, five of the top 25 position players by career OPS+ played for the Dodgers this season. Also, five of the top 20 pitchers by career ERA+. Say what you want about depth, roster management, cutting-edge strategy -- that’s a dazzling truckload of superstar ballplayers.
Payroll power: Industry breaking.
Isn’t this what the looming lockout is mostly about? The Dodgers top baseball’s revenue charts by a good bit, and the depressing thing about that advantage for the other 29 teams is that if the Dodgers wanted to spend even more, they probably could. Depending on where you get your numbers, you can argue that the Dodgers are only above average when it comes to the portion of their operating revenue that’s devoted to the payroll. And yeah, there are luxury tax implications for their level of spending under the current CBA, but there is also all that deferred money to players such as Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker and Blake Snell. You can’t blame the Dodgers for leaning in to their advantage. And you can’t blame anyone who resents it.
Homegrown percentage: 34%
The Dodgers rank 18th in homegrown percentage for their 40-man roster, per Fangraphs, but just five players on their 26-man postseason roster are internally developed prospects. Only the Rays have a lower count among this year’s playoff teams. L.A.’s count could rise if it tweaks its roster for the LCS, but the bottom line would remain true.
While L.A. scouting-and-development successes such as Will Smith and Andy Pages play key roles on the roster, the Dodgers’ perpetually fecund farm system is used as much for depth and for trades as it is to add to the Dodgers’ star count.
Signature signing: Shohei Ohtani, 2024
It’s almost counterintuitive, but how could baseball’s largest revenue producer produce even more revenue? How could an ongoing 21st dynasty seemingly without end get even better? How could the Dodgers upgrade a high-powered lineup and a deep and talented rotation when the bar for marginal improvement is so high? The answer to all of these questions, and so many more, is to sign Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers, suffice to say, have not been disappointed.
Best trade they’ve made: Mookie Betts, 2020
Time flies, doesn’t it? Betts has now played in more seasons and games for the Dodgers than he did for the Red Sox, when he was already a champion and a superstar on a Hall of Fame track. Betts has added two more rings and three more top-five MVP finishes to his résumé as a Dodger. He has also made the unprecedented transition from historically great right fielder to a full-time shortstop. Who does that? Well, Betts, who has already risen to 10th on the Dodgers’ career bWAR list -- one spot ahead of Roy Campanella.
Biggest reclamation project success: Max Muncy, 2018
A trope about the Dodgers used to be that when they’d acquire some distressed player struggling for another team, they’d “fix” him. It doesn’t seem like that’s as much of a thing anymore, if only because other teams have become adept at that practice and it has become a bona fide path to finding first-division contributors.
Muncy is not just a throwback to the days when the Dodgers featured several such players -- Muncy, Chris Taylor, Justin Turner, who really fixed himself but we digress. Now Muncy is far removed from being viewed as a mere rags-to-riches story. He’s a Dodgers fixture who ranks fifth in franchise history with 238 home runs.
Historical baggage: Traveling light but still some luggage here.
No NL team has won three straight titles, and the Dodgers are bidding to become the first. That can’t happen without another pennant, which would be the Dodgers’ 28th. A three-peat would really set this era of Dodger dominance apart historically.
How the Tampa Bay Rays were built
Roster style: Ahead of the curve.
Even though the Rays perennially have a top-10 minor league system, it’s startling the degree to which the roster was constructed via trades. Thus we come to a chicken-and-egg problem. Do the Rays play the way they play because that’s the style demanded of the players they’ve acquired? Or were those players acquired because they fit the style of play the Rays want to use? The Rays are always at the extreme of some kind of spectrum.
On offense, they are aggressive, make contact and mix a heavy dose of small-ball principles that is accented by the power of Junior Caminero. In run prevention, the Rays have leaned heavily on a staff that uses changeups as a knock-out pitch.
Whatever the Rays are doing, don’t try to copy it because by the time you have it implemented, they will be on to the next thing.
Payroll power: Lean and mean.
The Rays invariably land as a bottom-five payroll team. Their focus is on developing and trading for controllable players. The most talented of them are either extended early or traded in advance of an expensive free agency. They are aggressive when it comes to minor league free agents and waiver-wire pickups because of their ability to develop even players with a good amount of big league experience. The roster is always lean financially and is iterated constantly.
Homegrown percentage: 18%
First baseman Jonathan Aranda was an international signing. Left fielder Chandler Simpson and left-handed pitcher Ian Seymour were second-round picks, and shortstop Taylor Walls was taken in the third. That’s it. Everyone else on the Rays’ division series roster was acquired from another organization or via free agency. The picture doesn’t change much from a 40-man roster perspective, yielding the number above from Fangraphs. It’s the lowest in baseball.
Signature signing: Nick Martinez
It was only a one-year deal for $9 million, plus a mutual option for 2027, but the Martinez signing last offseason was just such a Rays thing to do. Martinez was a respected pitcher who had some previous big league success, but through his age-34 season, he had 11.1 career bWAR with a 103 ERA+, including a 98 ERA+ for Cincinnati last season. This season for the Rays, he went 15-6 with a 3.10 ERA and a 137 ERA+, threw a career-high 180 innings and posted 3.9 bWAR.
But beyond the late-career leveling up, Martinez also fit the paradigm of what kind of staff the Rays wanted to feature. The Rays threw 750 more changeups than any other team this season. Two of the top 13 individual pitchers were Rays: Freddy Peralta, acquired from the Mets during the season, and Martinez.
Best trade they’ve made: Junior Caminero
The aging joke is that teams simply should hang up the phone when the Rays call. If they want one of your players, even one you’re willing to deal, don’t send that player to the Rays because you will lose the trade. Better to figure out what the Rays like in a player and focus on that.
Anyway, of all the trades the Rays have won, acquiring Caminero from Cleveland for Tobias Myers stands out on the current roster because of how good he has become, not to mention how fast. Caminero’s 94 career homers rank as the ninth most for a player through his age-22 season. Myers never played in the majors for Cleveland.
Biggest reclamation project success: Yandy Diaz
This is yet another Rays forte, so there are lots to choose from. Diaz hadn’t flamed out when he was acquired by the Rays in a three-team 2018 trade from Cleveland. (Guardians: When the Rays call, hang up the phone!) In fact, he hit .312 in his last Cleveland season, albeit over just 39 games. He was, and is, built like an Adonis, but at that point he was through his age-26 season and owned a single big league homer. His narrative was that his power was wasted because he hit the ball on the ground far too often.
One way the Rays excel in secondary development is to focus on what a player does well, not on what he doesn’t, and leverage that. He still sports a groundball rate way above the league average. He’s also one of the best hitters in baseball. Over eight seasons with the Rays, he has 130 OPS+ and a batting title in 2023. This season he led the American League in hits.
Historical baggage: Nothing to lose.
The Rays have long been identified as the team no one goes to watch that plays in what looks like an upside down plaster basin and that punches above its weight competitively through the guile and cunning of its baseball operations department. It’s an amazing narrative and if the narrative changes into something else when the Rays move into their new ballpark, it’ll be bittersweet. But despite all of that success and cunning, the Rays have not won a World Series.
How the Cleveland Guardians were built
Roster style: Guardians-specific.
Cleveland’s pitching pipeline has been one of the most productive for a number of years and after a slight lag in the rotation department in recent years, the Guardians’ have reasserted their ability to develop hurlers.
Like the other two small-market clubs in the final four, Cleveland’s offense has a heavy emphasis on making contact and moving runners around the bases, though the Guardians have been considerably less successful than the Rays and Brewers when it comes to turning that approach into consistent runs.
Cleveland’s relative lack of power is in part due to a lack of success in getting their best power prospects to go deep consistently in the majors. Angel Martinez led the club with just 18 homers, a big part of why Cleveland targeted ex-Angel Jo Adell and his power bat. One thing that sets the Guardians apart is their adoration of switch-hitters. Cleveland got 2,003 plate appearances from switchers this season, most in the majors.
Payroll power: Dormant.
The Guardians continually cycle through controllable players, keeping the roster young and inexpensive, with Jose Ramirez serving as the notable exception. According to Cot’s Contracts, the Guardians’ Opening Day payroll was the lowest in baseball and they’ve generally been bottom five in the current decade despite a lot of on-field success.
This of course is a theme of this year’s LCS round. If you subtract the Opening Day payrolls of the Guardians, Rays and Brewers from that of the Dodgers, you’d still have $35.6 million left over, using Cot’s numbers.
Homegrown percentage: 58%
According to Fangraphs, the Guardians’ 40-man roster is just 1% behind St. Louis for the highest figure in baseball. The 26-man LDS roster featured 16 internally developed players, just three shy of the combined total of the Rays, Brewers and Dodgers. The Guardians scout ‘em and develop ‘em.
Signature signing: Jose Ramirez
There’s nothing close to a splashy free agent signee on the Guardians’ roster, but the three extensions Ramirez has signed have been immeasurably important to this franchise. Ramirez’s time with the club extends back to its last pennant win in 2016, and his omnipresence in the infield has given the team continuity. He has been an always-there star to a generation of young Cleveland baseball fans. The third of those extensions, signed in January, will keep Ramirez with the club through the 2032 season and all but ensures that he will eventually become a one-team Hall of Famer for the Guardians.
Best trade they’ve made: Jo Adell
The Guardians aren’t heavy traders, another thing that sets them apart from the swap-happy Rays and Brewers. Their relative lack of activity during baseball’s heaviest trade periods -- the in-season deadline and the hot stove circuit -- has often been maddening. Cleveland shook things up in 2026, acquiring Adell, Nathaniel Lowe, Patrick Bailey and Foster Griffin during the season.
They have all contributed, but it’s Adell’s presence in the middle of the power-starved lineup that has most changed the look of the club. Not all players would embrace moving from Los Angeles to Cleveland, but Adell has, and it’s easy to envision him having a long, productive relationship with the Guardians.
Biggest reclamation project success: Cade Smith
The Guardians don’t really have the same reputation for “fixing” players as do the Rays, Brewers and Dodgers. So we have to get a little creative here and go with Smith, an undrafted free agent pickup in 2020, when the draft was only five rounds long. (He was drafted by the Twins in 2017 but did not sign.) To go from off the draft board to the game’s best closer in six years is a nice bit of work by Smith -- and the Guardians.
Historical baggage: a backpack with an anvil in it
It’s as simple as this: Cleveland has not won the World Series since 1948, giving it the longest active title drought in the majors. It’s a crown it has worn since losing Game 7 to the Cubs in 2016. This season marks the second time the Guardians have gotten this deep in the playoffs since that fateful November night a decade ago. Each year Cleveland falls just short, that anvil gets a little bit heavier.