Ranking the NL contenders that the Brewers want to face least in the playoffs

Despite just four days remaining in the regular season, the National League playoff picture is far from set. In addition to seeding implications still being on the table, the final Wild Card spot is not yet clinched, with the New York Mets, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Cincinnati Reds all still having a chance to punch their ticket to the postseason.

The Milwaukee Brewers, on the other hand, have just one goal remaining before the postseason begins: earning the top seed in the NL. The team also has a chance to win a franchise-record number of games in 2025, and winning just one game over the Reds this weekend would accomplish both objectives.

Assuming they end up with the top seed in the NL, the Brewers, on paper, will be the team to beat on the right side of the postseason bracket. With a complete roster, an excellent manager, and home-field advantage, knocking off the Brew Crew in October will be no easy task for opposing teams. Here are the three squads with the best chance to do so.

3. Whoever ends up as the No. 6 seed

The NL playoff field is not yet set. In fact, the Brewers will play an important role in determining who earns the final postseason spot in the NL. Milwaukee faces off against the Reds this weekend, who are chasing the Mets for the final Wild Card spot. The Reds and the Diamondbacks each trail the Mets by just one game entering play on Thursday.

It's not that the Mets, Reds, or Diamondbacks are excellent teams who the Brewers don't match up well with, but rather it's the fact that in recent years it’s been common for the last seed in the NL to go on a crazy run and win multiple postseason series. In each of the last two years, the Brewers were the ones who kickstarted those runs, losing to the Diamondbacks in 2023 before they went on an NL pennant-winning run, and the Mets in 2024, who made it to the NLCS after narrowly escaping the Brew Crew.

Assuming the Brewers do end up earning the top seed in the National League, which they will if they win one more game or the Phillies lose one down the stretch, they wouldn't run into the No. 6 seed until the NLCS. By that time, whether it’s the Mets, Reds, or D-Backs, the final Wild Card team could already be on a Cinderella run for the ages, and the momentum may not necessarily be on Milwaukee's side. That said, facing one of those teams in the postseason over either of the next two would likely be a welcomed surprise for the Brewers.

2. Los Angeles Dodgers

By no means are the Los Angeles Dodgers the same juggernaut that they were a season ago, but many of the same pieces remain, and the starting pitching group is pretty easily the best in all of baseball. With options like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and now Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts should have no shortage of elite arms in October.

On top of their excellent starting pitching, the Dodgers have the advantage of a ridiculous amount of postseason experience up and down their roster. Veterans like Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, and Teoscar Hernández have been there before and know what it takes to win games in October. There's no doubt that having that familiarity with the playoff atmosphere has a positive effect on a team's chances to win games in the postseason.

Finally, there's the added piece of what the Brewers did to the Dodgers in the regular season that could either encourage Brewers fans or give them reason for caution, depending on how they choose to view it. Going 6-0 against Los Angeles during the regular season should instill optimism that the Brewers will steamroll the defending champs if they meet again in the postseason, but strange things happen in October once the regular season records are thrown out the window.

1. Philadelphia Phillies

This rematch of the 2008 NLDS would pit two completely opposite teams against one another. The Phillies are built around big-name sluggers, who, in some cases, don't offer much more than the ability to hit the ball over the fence, and yet their tendency to do so frequently allows the team to succeed. The Brewers, on the other hand, are built around finding value in practically every area other than power. Sure, Christian Yelich, Andrew Vaughn, and now Brice Turang can each leave the yard at a moment's notice, but they don't rely on power the same way that the Phillies do.

This matchup would also involve two of the hottest teams in baseball. Since the All-Star Break, the Brewers lead the NL with a record of 40-23. Meanwhile, the Phillies rank second in that category with a record of 38-24. If second-half records are an indicator of success in the postseason, an NLCS matchup between Milwaukee and Philadelphia would not only feature the top two seeds in the NL, but it would also feature two teams with a high likelihood of success in October.

When it comes to their pitching, the Phillies lost a major piece of their rotation in Zack Wheeler to a blood clot that will keep him out for the entirety of the postseason. That said, they have the arms to fill in, with Christopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, and Ranger Suárez all enjoying impressive 2025 seasons. There's a reason the Brewers and Phillies are the top two seeds in the NL; they are the best two teams, and an NLCS matchup between them would be absolute cinema.