Although the Brewers' regular-season success has been an exhilarating story to watch unfold in 2026, last year's unraveling in the National League Championship Series still looms heavily over this team. After a dramatic Game 5 victory over the division rival Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee was swept clean out of the postseason picture by the eventual champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
For much of the season, the lens through which national viewers watched the Brewers was whether they were prepared to stand their ground in a postseason rematch with Los Angeles. And while the underlying metrics paint part of the picture for us, it's the culture and energy surrounding this Brewers squad that's bringing confidence to their conquest of the National League.
That sentiment was backed up by 1999 MLB Executive of the Year Jim Bowden, who spent 16 years as a front office leader for professional clubs and has since transitioned into a national analyst role across various networks. In a recent appearance on Foul Territory TV, Bowden broke down why he thinks the Brewers are far better equipped to face the Brewers in the postseason this year than they were a season ago.
"They're athletic. They play defense. They've got a really good bullpen. They've got an ace. I think this is the year they got a legit shot against the Dodgers," Bowden said. "I didn't think that was the case a year ago. I do think it's a different story this year."
In terms of specifics, Bowden pointed to the historic success of Jacob Misiorowski, elite leadership from both Pat Murphy and Matt Arnold, Milwaukee's excellent player development system, and the emergence of key players like Logan Henderson, Jake Bauers, and Joey Ortiz as specific reasons why Milwaukee could make a postseason run this year.
However, that's only one side of the conversation. While we're so focused on what's going on with the Brewers, we haven't taken enough time to highlight what's going wrong for the Dodgers.
The Los Angeles Dodgers aren't the unbeatable force they used to be, and the Milwaukee Brewers are primed to take advantage of that.
Their record might not show it, but the Dodgers are quietly having trouble figuring out what to do with themselves as we approach the 2026 postseason. That starts, most importantly, with question marks surrounding superstar Shohei Ohtani's health. The 32-year-old is on the injured list, nursing concurrent issues with his neck, right arm, and knee. While he's expected to be ready for the postseason, it remains unclear whether he'll be back to full strength or if he'll even factor into the team's bullpen rotation in the playoffs.
As Bowden explained, that's not the end of the questions surrounding the winner of three of the last six World Series championships. Aside from Shohei, the Dodgers appear to be going through a similar identity crisis in the bullpen as the Brewers themselves, although he mentioned that Logan Henderson has straight-up outplayed Tarik Skubal since Milwaukee reportedly refused to include their rising star pitcher in a deal for the veteran at the trade deadline.
There are also some offensive concerns with veteran star Freddie Freeman's home-run hitting falling off a cliff since the All-Star break, and similar questions surrounding right fielder Kyle Tucker.
All in all, there are more cracks in the foundation for Los Angeles than we've seen in some time, and the Brewers remain on track to secure a Wild Card bye with a two-game lead on the Dodgers for the No. 1 seed in the National League. That, combined with the pure, unfiltered angst the Brewers hold against L.A. for last year's postseason result, and their 4-3 record over the Dodgers in the regular season this year, paves a long, winding, yet illuminated path for them to achieve redemption in the 2026 MLB Playoffs, so long as they get their acts together too.
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