Who should Brewers fans be rooting for in the Padres and Cubs' Wild Card series?

The Milwaukee Brewers won't play another game for five long days, but Brewers fans need only wait just one more day before having an important game to tune in for. Tomorrow afternoon, at 2:08 p.m. CT, the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres begin their best-of-three Wild Card series matchup to determine who will take on the Brew Crew in the NLDS.

With Chicago earning the top Wild Card seed, the series is set to take place at Wrigley Field, which will see its first playoff action since the Cubs dropped back-to-back games to the Miami Marlins during the pandemic-shortened season in 2020. The Padres, meanwhile, are making their fourth postseason appearance in the last six years and have yet to lose a series in the Wild Card round.

As the higher seed and the owners of home-field advantage, the odds currently tilt in the Cubs’ favor to advance through the first round, but the Padres are no easy opponent. For Brewers fans, the series could prevent a difficult dilemma, especially for the crowd that believes the Cubs are a better matchup for the Brewers in the NLDS. Rooting for Chicago obviously goes against any true Brewers fans' moral compass, and it remains difficult to envision a Brewers and Cubs postseason series despite the reality staring us in the eyes, but is there a case to be made that they are the easier team to beat in a five-game series?

Let's take a closer look at the numbers and determine who Brewers fans should be rooting for this week, if the thought of rooting for the Cubs is even possible to stomach.

Who should Brewers fans be rooting for in the Padres and Cubs' Wild Card series?

The case for the San Diego Padres

Regardless of the obvious "pro" of not having to root for the North Siders, there are several reasons to believe that the Brewers would have an easier time handling the Padres in the best-of-five NLDS than the Cubs.

First, and this may come as a surprise, the Padres are lacking in the power department. With names like Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Jackson Merrill at the top of their lineup, you might expect the Padres to be setting the pace in home runs and extra-base hits. However, the reality is quite the opposite. San Diego ranks 23rd in all of baseball in slugging percentage, the worst of any team that qualified for the 2025 postseason. The Padres are at the bottom of the league in hard hit percentage (29.0%) and their 151 team home runs this season are the 3rd worst in MLB better only than the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Brewers fans are all too familiar with the rhetoric that teams with no power are less likely to succeed in the postseason. However, Milwaukee gets away with their lack of slugging percentage (which still ranks a respectable 12th in the league), by pushing an approach of putting the ball in play and getting on base; the Padres don't have that same strength. While the Brewers rank 3rd in all of baseball in OBP, the Padres rank 11th, and their walk rate is more than a full percent lower than Milwaukee's.

On the other side of the ball, question marks remain when it comes to the Padres' starting pitching depth. The decision to start Nick Pivetta in game one of any playoff series is an easy one; he posted a 2.87 ERA and a sparkling 0.99 WHIP in 31 starts this season, but after him, it becomes less clear. Despite having an uncharacteristically poor season, former Cy Young runner-up Dylan Cease and his nearly 30% strikeout rate deserve some consideration. As does Michael King, who spent multiple stints on the IL this season but continues to prove that the Padres' decision to move him out of the bullpen was an astute one.

5x All-Star Yu Darvish, with his artificially high 5.38 ERA, and Randy Vásquez, who carried a 3.86 ERA across 26 starts this season, will also reportedly be included on the Padres' Wild Card series roster, but no game two or game three starter has been announced.

While either Cease, King, or Darvish could spin a gem on any given day, they could each just as easily give the Brewers an easy win in the middle of a postseason series and allow Milwaukee to avoid San Diego's "A bullpen." Which brings us to the Padres' strengths.

The case against the San Diego Padres

If there's a bullpen that the Brewers want to avoid in October, it's that of the San Diego Padres. Despite losing a key piece in Jason Adam to a season-ending quad injury at the beginning of September, the Padres' bullpen has remained a dominant part of their 2025 squad, as the Brewers saw firsthand last week. In 11.1 innings during their series against the Brewers last week, San Diego's bullpen allowed just two total earned runs.

Major trade deadline acquisition Mason Miller, whose addition to the Padres' bullpen turned the baseball world upside down, has been lights-out since joining San Diego's squad. He holds a 0.77 ERA through 22 appearances for the Padres and is striking out nearly two batters an inning. Paired with 2025 All-Stars Robert Suarez, who has continued his closing duties even after the addition of Miller, and Adrian Morejon, who is one of the best left-handed relievers in the game, the Padres have a lethal trio at the back-end of their pen that offsets the shorter starts that manager Mike Shildt may get from his game two or game three starters.

Another reason to root against a Brewers-Padres NLDS matchup is the postseason experience on San Diego's roster. Xander Bogaerts has already eclipsed the 50 playoff games mark, and Manny Machado will play in his 50th postseason game on Wednesday afternoon. Darvish has 13 postseason starts under his belt, while guys like Jake Cronenworth and Luis Arraez have already played in three or more postseasons. Having that familiarity with October baseball and being able to instill use that wisdom to guide the younger guys on the roster is a key part to any postseason run.

The case for the Chicago Cubs

In rooting for Chicago during their Wild Card matchup with the Padres this week, Brewers fans are simply admitting to the world that they aren't afraid of the Cubs and would prefer to face them in the NLDS over San Diego. It's not "rooting" but rather just a hope for the Brewers to have the easiest path through the postseason. But are the Cubs an easier foe than the Padres?

Let's start with the offense. 2025 was a tale of two halves for the second-place Cubs. Prior to the All-Star Break, Chicago's offense was formidable, leading the National League in slugging percentage, and carrying the Cubs through a strong first three months of the season. However, when the team returned from the mid-July break, the power had seemingly disappeared. Major drop-offs in production from All-Stars Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker were the main reason for the startling change, but across the board, the Cubs' offense ran into a wall of regression during the second half of the season.

Chicago's offense has started to heat up in September, even with Tucker missing more than two weeks with a calf strain. He's back with the squad as of Friday and went 1-11 at the plate over the weekend. Meanwhile, Crow-Armstrong posted a 74 wRC+ during the month of September, and without each of those two firing on all cylinders, the Cubs' rebounding offense is far less scary.

Question marks also remain in Chicago's starting rotation. The team lost rookie sensation Cade Horton to a fractured rib over the weekend, which is likely to keep him out through the NLDS. Horton was surely set to start a game in this week's Wild Card series, and was likely scheduled to start game one. Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga figure to be Craig Counsell's leading candidates to replace Horton as the game one starter, but both of them have posted an ERA of 5.40 or higher in their last seven starts.

The opposite is true for Jameson Taillon, who started the year inconsistently and missed most of the second half due to injury, has caught fire as of late, posting a 1.54 ERA in four starts in September. It's more than possible that Counsell plays the hot hand and turns to Taillon in either game one or two of this week's series as well as the NLDS.

The case against the Chicago Cubs

It's difficult to even fathom what a Brewers vs. Cubs postseason series would look like, but rooting for it not to happen is much easier, especially because it involves rooting for Chicago's downfall in the Wild Card series.

There are also several reasons to believe that the Cubs are not the better matchup for the Brewers in October. For one, while Crow-Armstrong and Tucker may not be hitting well lately, the rest of the offense is picking them up and entering the playoffs with some serious momentum. First baseman Michael Busch slugged eight homers and posted a team-leading slugging percentage of .658 in September. Rookie Moises Ballesteros had a monster month as well, and figures to be a part of the Cubs' playoff roster in some capacity. Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki each posted a wRC+ of 140 or higher during the month as well.

Another one of Chicago's position groups that's figuring things out as of late is the bullpen. Following a brutal month of July, old friend Drew Pomeranz was lock down during August and September. Closer Danny Palencia is back with the club after missing a few weeks with a right shoulder strain. Trade deadline acquisition Andrew Kittredge posted a sub-2.00 ERA in September, and Brad Keller continues to have a quietly excellent season, with a 2.07 ERA to prove it. What was once a major question mark for the Cubs has seemingly been answered down the stretch.

Final decision: San Diego Padres

Chalk this one up in the "cold takes" column, but Brewers fans should root against the Chicago Cubs this week. Not only do Cubs' losses evoke unavoidable waves of happiness and glee, but the Brewers match-up better with a team like the Padres.

The Crew would the left-handed starters of Chicago, which can neutralize the top of the Brewers' order, and they would also be facing a lineup they just saw, and wisely avoided using their projected playoff starters against. The Brewers are absolutely familiar with the Cubs' roster as well, but Chicago is playing much differently than they did when the two teams last met in August.

Both teams possess offenses that can be explosive at times and dormant at others, and bullpens that have endured some obstacles this season, but are hitting their stride at the right time. Even still, given all of the added emotion, both good and bad, that would come with playing the Cubs in October, the Padres should be every Brewers fan’s pick this week.