All the Milwaukee Brewers can do is wait.
They swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1982, but they won that series so quickly that they still don’t know who they’ll play in the Fall Classic.
So they wait, and they watch the ALCS to see whether it’s the Tampa Bay Rays or Cleveland Guardians who advance to take them on in the final baseball series of the year.
This particular waiting game comes with irony, though, because of Freddy Peralta.
Peralta, who pitched for the Brewers until 2026, will go a long way in determining which team the Brewers will take on in the World Series.
Brewers’ World Series Opponent
The Brewers don’t yet know whether they’ll play the Tampa Bay Rays or the Cleveland Guardians in the World Series, which will have Game 1 played on Friday.
The Rays take a 3-2 lead into Monday night, when they host the Guardians in Game 6 of the ALCS.
On the mound for the Rays in Game 6: Freddy Peralta.
How Freddy Peralta Got To Rays
Peralta was a Brewers pitcher at the end of the 2025 season.
But he was entering the final year of his contract, and so they traded him rather than losing him in free agency the following winter.
The Brewers didn’t trade Peralta to the Rays, though. They sent him to the New York Mets.
Then the Mets were terrible, and so after trading two big-time prospects to get Peralta from the Brewers, they then made a deal to send Peralta to the Rays before the trade deadline.
It was quite the short-lived Peralta tenure with the Mets, and even more fascinating — he was much worse with the Mets than he ever was with the Brewers, but he has now recaptured his old form with the Rays.
Who Will Brewers Root For?
Do the Brewers want to face their former pitcher Peralta in the World Series? And do they want to face the AL’s best team, the 100-win Rays?
The answer to both of those questions might be no, and if that’s the case, they’ll be rooting for the Guardians to rally past the Rays with two road wins and make the World Series instead.
The Brewers will be confident they can beat anyone. They won 103 games this season, more than anyone else in Major League Baseball. They’re as good a team as there is, and sweeping the Dodgers won’t hurt their confidence, either.
It’s just ironic that what comes next for the Brewers will depend heavily on Peralta. It’s been quite the year for Freddy, and it could gain even more layers soon.
Brewers’ World Series Opponent Will Be Determined By Freddy Peralta