Only 4 MLB Teams Have Never Won a World Series After Brewers’ Title

  • October 29, 2026

The 2026 World Series ensured that one team would escape the unfortunate roster of MLB franchises that have yet to capture a championship title. That team ended up being the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Brewers secured their first Commissioner’s Trophy by defeating the Tampa Bay Rays in five games, clinching Game 5 with a final score of 4-1. After 57 years as a franchise, this victory marks a historic achievement.

The Brewers now join the ranks of franchises that have won their first title in the last decade, joining the Houston Astros (2017, 2022), Washington Nationals (2019), and Texas Rangers (2023). The Chicago Cubs notably lifted their long-standing curse by winning their first title in 2016 after a 108-year drought.

This leaves four MLB teams still yearning for their opportunity to bask in glory. Let’s take a closer look at them.

First on the list are the Rays, who now hold the unfortunate distinction of having the most World Series appearances without a victory. They have reached as many World Series as the other three teams have together.

For the initial part of their existence, Tampa Bay was one of the least successful teams in all of sports, finishing last in nine of their first ten seasons in the typically dominant AL East. Everything changed in 2008, however, when an analytical revamp, led by Andrew Friedman, now president of baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers, led the team to their first World Series appearance, though they fell short in five games against the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Rays have maintained competitiveness since then, but their next World Series opportunity came in the altered COVID-19 season of 2020, where they lost in six games to, again, the Dodgers. This recent appearance ended with a loss in five games.

While the Rays have made the most World Series appearances without a championship, the Padres hold the record for the longest time without a breakthrough victory. Both the Padres and Milwaukee Brewers were established as expansion teams in 1969, with the Brewers originally starting as the Seattle Pilots before relocating to Wisconsin.

San Diego’s first trip to the World Series was in 1984, during which a youthful Tony Gwynn led the squad in his inaugural full MLB season. They fell to a formidable Detroit Tigers team in five games. The Padres returned to the final round in 1998, with Gwynn still on the roster, but that series was decidedly one-sided, culminating in a sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees.

Since 2020, the Padres have been a competitive force during regular seasons and have invested significantly to retain top-tier talent in San Diego, although this strategy has only yielded one NLCS appearance in 2022 so far. This year, they defeated the Chicago Cubs in the wild-card round but were subsequently ousted 3-1 by the Brewers in the NLDS.

Ranking third in terms of the poorest winning percentage in MLB since their inaugural season in 1993, the Rockies have struggled recently to improve their standing. They extended their string of last-place finishes in the NL West to five seasons, following a streak of three fourth-place finishes. To date, the Rockies have never claimed a division title.

In 34 years, they have only made the playoffs five times, with the most recent appearance in 2018 ending in a sweep by the Brewers in the NLDS. Their sole World Series appearance was in 2007, featuring a roster that included talents like Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holliday, and Todd Helton.

That 2007 squad entered the Fall Classic on a ten-game winning streak, having swept the Phillies and Diamondbacks, before being swept by the Boston Red Sox. Since then, the franchise has registered only two playoff victories.

The Mariners are one of the four teams that have yet to win a World Series and are the only franchise that has never qualified for the event.

They have certainly boasted the talent necessary to do so, notably reaching their first postseason in 1995 with a remarkable core featuring Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr., and a rookie Alex Rodriguez. By 2001, only Martinez remained from that group, but it was also the year when Ichiro Suzuki joined, guiding the team to a record-tying 116-win season that unfortunately ended in a five-game loss against the Yankees in the ALCS.

Seattle has only made the playoffs twice since then, in 2022 and 2025. Last year, they came the closest to reaching the World Series, pushing the Toronto Blue Jays to seven games in the ALCS before George Springer dashed their hopes with a home run. This year, the roster disappointed fans, finishing with a 76-86 record and missing playoff contention.

Predicting which franchise might capture the next championship is uncertain. One could base it on recent success, which could be depicted as follows:

  1. Rays (98-64, reached World Series)

  2. Padres (91-71, reached NLDS)

  3. Mariners (76-86, missed playoffs by 8 games)

  4. Rockies (58-105, missed playoffs by 30 games)

If one wishes to consider future talent, here’s how these four teams ranked according to MLB Pipeline’s post-trade-deadline farm system assessments.

There are various methods to evaluate these franchises, but the unfortunate reality is that winning the World Series requires numerous favorable conditions that can feel almost like a lightning strike. The Rays appear to be the most well-positioned to achieve this breakthrough, although they continue to operate as a small-market team with a budget-friendly roster year after year. Perhaps that will shift with the new CBA, yet 2026 may very well represent yet another missed opportunity.

Although the four teams listed have yet to win a title, they are not the ones with the most extended wait for a championship. The Cleveland Guardians last captured the title in 1948, marking the longest dry spell in MLB history. It also stands as the second-longest drought in the four major American men’s sports leagues, trailing only the Arizona Cardinals, who clinched the NFL championship in 1947 before the merger when the team was based in Chicago.

Since then, Cleveland has lost four World Series in 1954, 1995, 1997, and 2016. The 2016 defeat likely feels the most painful, as the team held a 3-1 series advantage but ended up in a Game 7 that went into extra innings at home against a Cubs team also trying to break its own lengthy drought.

This year’s Guardians were tied 2-2 with the Rays in the ALCS but ultimately lost the next two games after strong pitching performances from Drew Rasmussen and Freddy Peralta.