Wait till this year! Just how rare a World Series between teams that have never won really is

This World Series matchup between the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays feels inevitable. On the other hand, it feels impossible. The Brewers were MLB's best team in the regular season, rolling to a franchise-record 103 wins and posting the top run differential in the sport. They're young, athletic and possess a quintessential modern bullpen full of hard-throwing relievers. They have appeared in eight of the past nine postseasons, had the best record in the majors last year and got better in 2026 as Jacob Misiorowski matured into the likely National League Cy Young winner. It should not be a surprise they're here. The Rays, meanwhile, have been one of baseball's most successful franchises since their initial breakout season in 2008. They won 98 games this season, the most in the American League, and though they missed the playoffs in 2024 and 2025, they had made them five years in a row prior to that. They're young, athletic and possess one of MLB's best closers in Bryan Baker and one of the top power hitters in Junior Caminero. While not many picked the Rays to reach the World Series before the season, it should not be a surprise they're here. And yet ... the Brewers ranked 19th in payroll and play in the sport's smallest metro market. The Rays are 28th in payroll. That feels unbelievable in a world where owners -- with a labor fight and lockout looming in the offseason -- are arguing the sport isn't fair. The historic significance of this World Series goes beyond the size of each team's payroll though. Neither franchise has won a World Series, so the list of teams without a title will drop from five to four when this year's champion is crowned. The Brewers, in their 57th season in Milwaukee, will be looking to end one of the longest title droughts in the sport, while the Rays are hoping their third World Series trip is the charm. We get the best teams in each league facing off, a rarity in the expanded playoffs of the wild-card era. It has a chance to be a classic World Series. No. 1 vs. No. 1 Let's start here. For purists who appreciate the grind and importance of the 162-game season, this is a throwback-style World Series: The teams that won the most games in each league will be playing each other. Imagine that. In the wild-card era, which began in 1995, this has happened just six times now in 32 years: 1995: Braves over Cleveland 1999: Yankees over Braves 2013: Red Sox over Cardinals 2020: Dodgers over Rays 2024: Dodgers over Yankees 2026: Brewers vs. Rays The Brewers and Rays deserve to be here; they aren't just two teams that got hot at the right time like we've seen some Octobers. If rewarding the grind of the regular season is your jig, you should be dancing about this matchup. Beyond that, these are two really good teams. Here are the top combined World Series matchups since 1995 based on combined winning percentage: 1. 2020: Dodgers (43-17, .717) over Rays (40-20, .667) 2. 1995: Braves (90-54, .625) over Cleveland (100-44, .694) 3. 1998: Yankees (114-48, .704) over Padres (98-64, .605) 4. 2017: Astros (101-61, .623) over Dodgers (104-58, .642) 5. 2004: Red Sox (98-64, .605) over Cardinals (105-57, .648) 6. 2026: Brewers (103-59, .636) vs. Rays (98-64, .605) 6. 1999: Yankees (98-64, .605) over Braves (103-59, .636) Sure, there is no household name such as Shohei Ohtani to draw in casual fans, but for die-hards it's a fun showdown between teams that play an exciting and attractive brand of baseball and it could pick up more interest as momentum builds throughout like the Blue Jays-Dodgers matchup did last season. The expanded playoffs don't always lead to the most enticing World Series, so fans should savor this matchup. Just since the playoffs were expanded to 12 teams in 2022, the No. 6 seed has reached the World Series (the 2022 Phillies) and there was an all-wild-card series in 2023 between the 90-win Rangers and 84-win Diamondbacks. World Series history can essentially be broken into four eras that have greatly affected the odds of the top team in each league advancing to the World Series: The pennant era, 1903-1968 Format: The league winner advanced directly to the World Series. Average World Series matchup: 1.0 (AL) vs. 1.0 (NL) Percentage of No. 1 vs. No. 1: 100% Obviously, in this era, the team with the best record won the pennant and advanced directly to the World Series. The LCS era, 1969-1993 Format: Four playoff teams, two division winners in each league. Average World Series matchup: 1.7 (AL) vs. 1.7 (NL) Percentage of No. 1 vs. No. 1: 36% (9 out of 25) This is considered by some as the golden era of postseason play, although since divisions weren't always equal, there could still be a surprise team in the World Series. The 1973 Mets made it after finishing 82-79, and the 1987 Twins had just the fifth-best record in the AL at 85-77 but won their division -- and then the World Series. Wild-card era, 1995-2011 Format: Four playoff teams in each league (three division winners, one wild card). Average World Series matchup: 2.2 (AL) vs. 2.6 (NL) Percentage of No. 1 vs. No. 1: 12% (2 of 17) The odds of the top teams meeting went down -- with nearly half the World Series in this era (eight of 17) not featuring one of the top teams from either league. The NL went seven straight years, from 2005 to 2011, without a top seed reaching the World Series, reaching the nadir in 2006 when the 83-79 Cardinals, owner of the fifth-best record in the league, reached the World Series -- and won it. Expanded wild-card era, 2012-2026 Format: Five playoff teams through 2021 (eight in 2020), six since 2022 Average World Series matchup: 1.9 (AL) vs. 2.9 (NL) Percentage of No. 1 vs. No. 1: 27% (4 of 15) For whatever reason, there have been more No. 1-vs.-No. 1 matchups in this era, even as the playoffs expanded. This era did feature the first all-wild-card World Series between the Giants and Royals in 2014 -- neither team won 90 games -- but including the Brewers this October, seven 100-win teams have reached the World Series since 2016 (and the 2020 Dodgers on Rays played at a 100-win pace in the pandemic-shortened season). You could argue that this era has presented the best of both worlds of playoff baseball: the random nature of a postseason tournament, but not so random that great teams never reach the World Series. The longest droughts The Brewers are in their 57th season in Milwaukee. The Rays are in their 29th season in Tampa Bay. Neither franchise has won a World Series. The last time we had this kind of World Series matchup was in 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals. But while you'll surely hear that fact mentioned throughout the World Series, it depends on how you look at such things. Franchises relocate and cities sometimes get new teams. Milwaukee -- the city -- won a World Series in 1957 when the Braves were champions. Does that count? The New York Giants last won a World Series in 1954, but the San Francisco Giants, who relocated in 1958, didn't win until 2010. Did San Francisco fans care about 1954 while waiting for the first championship parade in their city? If we use that city-based history, the last five World Series before this year between cities that had never won: 2010: San Francisco Giants (51) over Texas Rangers (37) 2002: Anaheim Angels (40) over San Francisco Giants (47) (We'll treat Anaheim as separate from L.A. for this exercise.) 1992: Toronto Blue Jays (15) over Atlanta Braves (26) 1980: Philadelphia Phillies (76) over Kansas City Royals (11) 1920: Cleveland (16) over Brooklyn Robins (16) The number in parentheses is the number of seasons each team had played in that city prior to the World Series year in question. (For the original 16 franchises, we start with the first World Series in 1903.) The Rangers, for example, started out as the Washington Senators in 1961, but moved to Texas in 1972, so their clock starts in 1972. So, for 2026, we get the Brewers at 56 seasons played without a title and the Rays at 28 -- that adds up to 84 seasons without a title, close to but not quite matching the 88 seasons between the Giants and Rangers in 2010 or the 87 between the Angels/Giants and Phillies/Royals. If we consider franchise droughts -- regardless of relocations -- since a last World Series title, this year's matchup comes as the seventh-longest combined drought World Series: 1. 2016 (174 seasons): Cubs (107) vs. Indians (67) 2. 2005 (130): White Sox (88) vs. Astros (42) 3. 2004 (106): Red Sox (85) vs. Cardinals (21) 4. 2010 (104): Giants (56) vs. Rangers (48) 5. 1975 (90): Red Sox (56) vs. Reds (34) 6. 1980 (87): Phillies (76) vs. Royals (11) 7. 2026 (85): Brewers (57) vs. Rays (28) The strange case of the Milwaukee Brewers Why 57 seasons instead of 56 for the Brewers? Because the franchise began in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots. How the franchise landed in Milwaukee in the first place is one of the wildest stories in MLB history. In a roundabout way, Brewers fans can thank Charlie Finley, the controversial and eclectic owner of the A's. When Finley moved the A's from Kansas City to Oakland after the 1967 season, Missouri Senator Stuart Symington threatened MLB's antitrust exemption unless a replacement team was given to Kansas City. The American League quickly granted an expansion franchise to Kansas City for the 1969 season but needed a second team. Seattle was awarded the second AL franchise, but the ownership consortium was underfunded and soon running out of money. A new domed stadium had been approved by local voters but got delayed, so the Pilots had to play in Sick's Stadium, a rundown minor league park in need of an overhaul. On Opening Day, workers could still be heard pounding nails into wooden bleachers in the outfield. If attendance got too high -- rarely a problem -- the water pressure stopped working. At the World Series, a deal was reached to sell the team to a Bud Selig-led group of Milwaukee businessmen who had initially been hopeful of landing one of the National League expansion franchises in 1969 (which instead went to San Diego and Montreal). Fearful of another lawsuit, the American League tried to find new local owners in Seattle. The Pilots went to spring training in 1970 in Arizona. The franchise was also in bankruptcy court, unable to pay its debts. If players weren't paid, they would become free agents. As the story goes, the team's equipment truck left Arizona and stopped in Utah, awaiting the word on whether to turn left for Seattle or right for Milwaukee. With the regular season days away, the court ruled that the Pilots were bankrupt. The sale for $10.8 million to the Selig group was now the only viable solution and the team headed to Milwaukee. "Ten eight!" Selig told author Dan Okrent. "For Steve Hovley and Jerry McNertney!" After a string of losing seasons upon moving to Milwaukee, the Brewers reached their only World Series in 1982 -- the team known as Harvey's Wallbangers, after manager Harvey Kuenn. Led by MVP Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Gorman Thomas and Cecil Cooper, they had scored the most runs in the majors since 1953 and the city held a parade for their runner-up finish. One remnant of the Pilots remains to this day: the team's original blue-and-yellow colors.