Ranking the World Series chances for last four MLB teams looking for first title after Brewers snap drought

MLB has seen four first-time champions across the last decade and now has just four titleless teams remaining

Oct 29, 2026 at 9:45 am ET • 7 min read

For the fourth time in 10 years, Major League Baseball has a first-time champion. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays in this year's Fall Classic to clinch the franchise's first title. They join the 2017 Houston Astros, 2019 Washington Nationals, and 2023 Texas Rangers as first-time champions across the last decade. That's a lot of new faces in the Fall Classic.

Milwaukee's title leaves four teams without a World Series championship, including those same Rays. One team was guaranteed to come out of this World Series with its first title and the Brewers won out. With the World Series complete, here is our authoritative ranking of the four ringless teams based on how close they are to winning their first-ever World Series.

4. Colorado Rockies

2026 record: 58-104 (5th in NL West)
2026 finish: Missed postseason
Pennants: 2007  

What do they have going for them? Coors Field is beautiful. I'll give them that. In all seriousness, the Rockies' new front office is run by competent baseball people in president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta and general manager Josh Byrnes. That's a pretty big step up from the friends-and-family crowd that ran the team previously. We saw some proof of concept too. A few pitchers on the staff, including Chase Dollander (who had UCL surgery in June), reshaped their arsenals this year in a way that suggests the Rockies are out of the Stone Age and getting caught up with modern analytics. We're starting to see signs the franchise is moving in the right direction. 

What's holding them back? There just isn't enough talent throughout the organization. Dollander, Cole Carrigg, Hunter Goodman, Kyle Karros, and TJ Rumfield are the only 2026 Rockies who wouldn't be out of place on a World Series contender, and Goodman will go into the offseason as a trade candidate. The farm system is ranked middle of the pack and then there's the whole Coors Field situation. The team's home environment is a competitive disadvantage. How do you prevent runs and soft tissue injuries at altitude? Maybe Byrnes and DePodesta can figure that out. Coors Field is a real negative, though. The Rockies play half their games in a difficult and unique environment. Plus they're stuck in the NL West with the Dodgers.

When could they win their first World Series? The Rockies feel like they're two years away from being two years away, and even that might be generous. As promising as some of those signs were in 2026, the Rockies still have a long way to go to catch up to the most well-run teams, and an even longer way to go to amass enough talent to contend for a championship. It's reasonable to say no team in baseball is further from a World Series title than these Rockies.

3. San Diego Padres

2026 record: 91-71 (2nd in NL West)
2026 finish: Lost NLDS
Pennants: 1984 and 1998

What do they have going for them? In Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr., and wunderkind catcher Ethan Salas, the Padres have three excellent 20-somethings who are (or project to be, in Salas' case) above-average at their positions. Manny Machado is still a 30-homer guy and a premier defender at the hot corner even as he enters his mid-30s. There's Mason Miller too. San Diego has the game's best closer anchoring their bullpen. The front office has shown a knack for finding quality contributors on the cheap (Ty France, Gavin Sheets, etc.) and the new ownership group says it's ready to spend.

What's holding them back? The Padres have A LOT of money tied up in players on the back nine of their careers, including Machado, Xander Bogaerts, and Jake Cronenworth. Their best years are behind them and none of them are even halfway through their long-term contracts. The Padres are also very thin on the mound, particularly with Michael King (opt out) and Nick Pivetta (club option) not certain to return in 2027. GM A.J. Preller's aggressive wheeling and dealing has left the farm system very thin behind Salas. It's a top-heavy roster with a lot of downside risk in its most expensive players, and they're stuck playing in the same division as the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Padres won't get a Wild Card Series bye anytime soon.

When could they win their first World Series? It could be as soon as next season, though it will require a heavy investment from ownership in the pitching staff. Even retaining King and/or Pivetta will be costly, and the Padres need more behind them. With good health, good sequencing, and some savvy moves, sure, San Diego could win the World Series next season. That sure is a lot of ifs though, isn't it? There have been long stretches over the last few seasons when it felt like the Padres were a house of cards on the verge of collapse.

2. Seattle Mariners

2026 record: 76-86 (3rd in AL West)
2026 finish: Missed postseason
Pennants: None!

What do they have going for them? As disappointing as this past season was, the Mariners do have a lot going for them, namely their homegrown rotation (Kade Anderson, Logan Gilbert, Emerson Hancock, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo) and their homegrown up-the-middle (Colt Emerson, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Cole Young). If that's not a championship-caliber core, it's darn close to it. Dominic Canzone, Brendan Donovan, and Josh Naylor are a solid supporting cast, and if we exclude Anderson because he's made his MLB debut, the Mariners might have the best pitching prospect in baseball in Ryan Sloan. It also must be noted that the AL West is baseball's weakest division. An 87-win season might win you the AL West by 10 games in 2027.

What's holding them back? That homegrown core looks great on paper, but it did not perform as expected this past season, and a few of those players (Donovan and Gilbert, most notably) are only a season away from free agency. This team could look very different in a year's time. Also, ownership has held the line on payroll and kept the Mariners in the middle of the pack. Unless that unexpectedly changes, Seattle won't ever be in play for tippy-top free agents. The kind of free agents who can put a team on the cusp like these Mariners over the top. More than anything, though, it's the hard-to-explain underperformance from that homegrown core.

When could they win their first World Series? This was a very disappointing season, no doubt, but there is a reason the Mariners came into 2026 as the consensus best team in the American League. It's a talented roster loaded with prime-aged players, and the only significant free agent loss figures to be Randy Arozarena (that will be a big loss, of course). The AL West is so bad that it won't take much for the Mariners to get into the postseason next year. Get in and you can win.

1. Tampa Bay Rays

2026 record: 98-68 (1st in AL East)
2026 finish: Lost World Series
Pennants: 2008, 2020, and 2026

What do they have going for them? A very good team and a bona fide superstar in 23-year-old Junior Caminero, for starters. Jonathan Aranda, Liam Hicks, Victor Mesa Jr., and Chandler Simpson are strong building blocks on the position player side, and they have a tippy-top prospect in outfielder Theo Gillen. Grady Emerson, the No. 2 pick in the 2026 Draft, is also on the way. The Rays have a solid talent base in the big leagues, a rich farm system, the ability to pluck quality pitchers seemingly out of nowhere, and a new ballpark in Tampa proper on the horizon. There are positives aplenty here.

What's holding them back? Even with a new ownership group and the forthcoming ballpark, it seems unlikely the Rays will ever be a top spender. The best case might be a middle-of-the-pack payroll, and the less you spend, the less your margin of error. That's just the way it is. The Rays will never be able to plug holes or paper over mistakes with money the way other teams can. Also, they're stuck in a brutal division. Perhaps that eventually changes with expansion and realignment, but right now, the Rays have to contend with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Toronto Blue Jays. That's a tough draw.

When could they win their first World Series? Next season. I mean, the Rays were in the World Series this year and they were the American League's best team almost wire-to-wire. They will need to replace free agent-to-be starters Nick Martinez and Freddy Peralta; otherwise, the Rays will return every significant player next season, and the vast majority are on the right side of 30.