10 Bold Predictions For The MLB Postseason And Predictions On Every Playoff Series
Left 50%
Center 0%
Right 50%
1 left · 0 center · 1 right
What happened
The Guardian published a three-writer roundtable of Major League Baseball postseason predictions headlined around whether the Los Angeles Dodgers face an inevitable fall. Jason Foster of Sport & State, a company founded by Clay Travis, published a separate list of ten bold predictions and round-by-round series forecasts, which The Daily Wire carried, describing the piece as appearing before the postseason started on a Tuesday. Both articles named projected winners for the Wild Card, Division Series, League Championship Series, and World Series. They also discussed the sport's labor situation, including a collective bargaining agreement expiration on December 1.
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage treats the coming labor fight as the story that outlasts October; right-leaning coverage never mentions a lockout and instead treats cheap-team success as an argument against a salary cap. Labor talks are named the most important factor after the Fall Classic in the Guardian, with a warning that a prolonged dispute could wipe out the next season. The Brewers and Rays are cast in Daily Wire coverage as putting "a kink" in the idea that baseball needs a cap so small-market clubs can win.
Left-leaning coverage lingers on clubs that missed October, including a Mariners franchise that has still never reached a World Series. Right-leaning coverage never names those absences and instead catalogs anonymous October feats, from a player who began the year in the minors to someone hitting for the cycle.
Will a cheap club's deep run move anyone's position in the labor talks?
Bottom line
The Guardian warns that a lockout could kill the 2027 season; Daily Wire never mentions that year and instead says the Rays' 25th-ranked payroll will make a salary cap harder to sell.
The receipts — 4 facts one side's coverage lacks
- The CBA expires on 1 December, and a lockout could freeze the hot-stove market or torpedo the 2027 season
- The Brewers ranked 19th in payroll and the Rays 25th, yet each won the most games in its league
- The Dodgers' roster has an average age of 31, oldest in MLB
- Houston won the AL West at 81-81, the first division winner that did not finish above .500
The Left View
Guardian contributors argued the Dodgers would pay for an aging roster — they said the average age was 31, making them the oldest team in MLB — and for having played an extra 31 postseason games over two years. Two of three picked Milwaukee over Los Angeles in the NLCS; one still favored the Dodgers in the World Series as becoming "only the third franchise to win three consecutive World Series crowns," while two picked the Brewers, one adding that owners would detest a Brewers-Rays final that "proves lower payroll teams can win it all." They labeled the Rays a dark horse despite a strong season, citing pitching and contact hitting, and the Cubs a dark horse because of "leaky relief pitching." On stakes beyond the field, one writer said labor talks were the most important factor, warning a lockout could freeze the market or "torpedo the 2027 season entirely," and another said the American League had an "anyone's ballgame" feel because the circuit lacked great teams.
The Right View
Foster called postseason forecasting a "fool's errand" because "in a short series, anybody can beat anybody," and predicted the Dodgers would not three-peat, citing that even the best teams have "at best, around a 23 percent chance" to win the World Series. He said every Wild Card series would go the distance and that Yankees-Red Sox would "reignite" a rivalry that had not felt like a big deal to average fans since the 2004 ALCS. He argued that the Rays and Brewers, described as winning the most games in their leagues with the 25th- and 19th-ranked payrolls, "will really put a kink in the idea that MLB needs a salary cap so small-market teams can actually hope to win the World Series" and make it harder to sell that "the Dodgers have ruined baseball with their bottomless pit of money." He picked Cleveland as a Cinderella to the ALCS, Houston to survive the Wild Card despite an 81-81 record, Milwaukee over Los Angeles in the NLCS, Tampa Bay over Cleveland in the ALCS, and the Brewers over the Rays in the World Series, plus several individual feats such as a three-homer game and another Yamamoto complete game.
Our Take (balanced)
The Guardian roundtable's strongest argument is that the Dodgers' age and recent October workload create a real path for Milwaukee, a view two of its three writers endorsed in the NLCS and two carried through to a Brewers title. Foster's strongest argument is the combination of short-series randomness he quotes at roughly a 23 percent ceiling for any favorite and the regular-season success he attributes to two low-payroll clubs, which he says undercuts the case for a salary cap. The central unresolved tension is whether a Brewers or Rays run would demonstrate that payroll does not decide October — as Foster claims it would kink the cap debate — or whether, as the Guardian labor-focused writer treats as separate, the on-field result would still leave the December bargaining fight as the larger story.
2 sources
More stories
The week's bottom lines, in your inbox
One email a week: the five stories that mattered and what they actually mean. Free.