The winner of the National League Championship Series could influence whether baseball is played in 2027. Although it may seem incredible, the series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, which begins on Monday, could be a reflection of the impending labor battle between MLB and the MLB Players Association.
A Game with Major Implications
Baseball team owners are seeking a salary cap. If the Dodgers, with their record payroll of over $500 million, win two consecutive World Series, this could push the league to regulate salaries. On the other hand, if the Brewers, with a smaller payroll, triumph, it would demonstrate that success is possible even in smaller markets and that the failures of other low-income teams are not solely due to spending.
The truth resides in a middle ground, but both sides are unwilling to concede ground in the negotiations that will determine the economic future of the game.
MLB is expected to impose a lockout on players when the current agreement expires. Two consecutive Dodgers championships could encourage MLB and a group of fans who see a salary cap as the solution to the concentration of championships in the hands of teams with large budgets.
The MLBPA has no intention of negotiating if the salary cap remains. Players have already discussed how to deal with the possibility of losing playing time in 2027. If the Brewers win, the union could argue that a team without major investments defeated the Dodgers, which would demonstrate that the ability to build a successful team does not depend on financial power.
The Road to Success: Different Strategies
The Brewers have joined the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Guardians as examples of success with low revenue. In the last eight years, Milwaukee has won five National League Central Division titles and reached the playoffs seven times. With a 97-65 record this year, the Brewers had the best record in baseball. They achieved this thanks to a unique combination of players.
According to data, of the 26 players on the Brewers’ roster for the National League Championship Series, 15 arrived via trades, including most of their best players (Christian Yelich, William Contreras, Freddy Peralta, and Trevor Megill). The Brewers drafted four players (Brice Turang, Jacob Misiorowski, Sal Frelick, and Aaron Ashby), signed three as minor league free agents, brought in two through international amateur free agency (Jackson Chourio and Abner Uribe), and obtained one in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft during the offseason.
This leaves only one major league free agent: Jose Quintana, who signed a one-year, $4 million contract in March.
The MLBPA, which has fought for free agency since its creation, would be promoting a team that doesn’t spend on free agents. This strengthens the union’s position: if the current system is irreparable due to money, how did a team that doesn’t spend win a championship?
The Dodgers, on the other hand, don’t rely so much on free agents. They have acquired the most players through trades, although there are only nine, and several of them, such as Mookie Betts, Tyler Glasnow, Tommy Edman, and Alex Vesia, play an important role on the team. Los Angeles signed five major league free agents (including Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Blake Snell), in addition to two professional international free agents (Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Hyeseong Kim), two amateur international free agents (Roki Sasaki and Andy Pages), and two minor league free agents (Max Muncy and Justin Dean). They drafted five of their players and completed their roster with Jack Dreyer, an undrafted free agent.
Dreyer highlights what the Dodgers and Brewers do exceptionally well: extracting talent from players through systems that value a combination of scouting, analysis, and superior training. It doesn’t matter if you spend hundreds of millions of dollars or the approximately $115 million the Brewers currently have. If you can become an organization that makes the most of players, success will follow.
The Game and the Future of Baseball
This National League Championship Series is baseball at its finest: a well-oiled machine of superstars peaking at the right moment, seeking to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions since 2000, against a team that plays a charming, very likable style of baseball and always seems to succeed as well.
The Brewers haven’t won a championship, and frustrating the Dodgers along the way would make the triumph story even greater.
Despite having a greater number of victories, the Brewers enter this series as the underdogs, and it’s a fair designation. There will be a lot of exciting baseball in Milwaukee and Los Angeles over the next week, with matchups that make October the most special month of the year. Ohtani, Betts, and Freeman trying to catch up to Misiorowski’s fastball velocity and read his slider. Chourio, Contreras, and Turang trying to decipher Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow, and Ohtani. The Brewers’ terrifying bullpen, with five relievers throwing over 97 mph, against the team that hit high-octane fastballs better than anyone else this year. The Dodgers trying to figure out if they can trust any reliever other than Sasaki, and the Brewers, who were the fifth-most difficult team to strike out this season, trying to get to the Los Angeles bullpen with a barrage of balls in play.
While baseball itself will be undisputed, this National League Championship Series is bigger than the game. Its tentacles will reach into the future, with an involuntary but undeniable place in something much more transcendent. It’s just a series, yes. But it’s so much more.
