The swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers out of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) on Thursday with a 6-4 win in Game 4 at Dodger Stadium. The win sends Milwaukee to their first World Series since 1982, with a roster that cost a fraction of what the Dodgers spent.
Spotrac’s 2026 luxury-tax projections listed the Brewers near $155 million and the Dodgers near $433 million. Milwaukee also posted the majors’ best regular-season record at 103-59.
jumped ahead 4-0 in the second inning on a three-run home run by . Milwaukee Brewers answered with two runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth. then delivered a go-ahead home run in the sixth, and David Hamilton added a solo shot in the ninth. Aaron Ashby recorded the save. The four-run comeback matched the largest ever in a pennant-clinching League Championship Series game.
First baseman Jake Bauers earned NLCS MVP honors after driving in a team-high six runs. In the clincher, he contributed a two-run ground-rule double in the fourth and drew a game-tying bases-loaded walk in the fifth. Bauers became the first Brewers player to win an LCS MVP award.
“They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we’ve got a bunch of gamers,” manager Pat Murphy said. “And the gamers won this week,” he added.
MLB.com’s breakdown of the 12 postseason rosters showed Milwaukee Brewers projected playoff group producing 53.7 wins above replacement, the highest total of any team. Of that figure, 31.4 WAR came from 10 homegrown players. By comparison, free agents signed from outside the organization accounted for 24.5 of the Dodgers’ 52.0 roster WAR.
Right-hander Jacob Misiorowski, viewed as the likely NL winner, was selected in the second round of the 2022 draft out of Crowder College and signed for $2.35 million. Second baseman Brice Turang, the club’s first-round pick in 2018, topped the homegrown group with 7.3 WAR. Outfielder Jackson Chourio, signed out of Venezuela for $1.8 million at age 16 in January 2021, caught the series’ final out.
The same analysis counted 15 trade acquisitions worth 21.7 WAR and only one free agent, backup catcher Gary Sanchez. Bauers arrived via trade from the in November 2023 and later re-signed as a minor-league free agent in January 2025. He considered retiring before producing 26 home runs and 86 RBIs this season on a $2.7 million salary, according to Spotrac.
The World Series will begin on Friday, October 23, in Milwaukee, where the Brewers hold home-field advantage. The run arrives as baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, which governs the sport’s labor and spending rules, approaches its December 1 expiration.
