How can the Dodgers and Brewers define the MLB labor battle?
The NLCS between Brewers and Dodgers is a reflection of the impending labor war between MLB and the Players Association
The winner of the National League Championship Series could determine whether Major League Baseball is played in 2027.
This might seem unlikely? It is not. What looks like a best-of-seven series, beginning Monday with the Milwaukee Brewers’ opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers, will play out as a reflection of the impending labor war between MLB and the MLB Players Association.
Owners across baseball want a salary cap, and if the Dodgers, with their record payroll of more than $500 million, win two consecutive World Series, it will only reinforce the league’s effort to regulate salaries. The Brewers, a team that is always in the bottom third of their payroll, emerging triumphant would be the latest proof that winners can emerge even in baseball’s smallest markets and that the failures of other low-income teams have less to do with spending than with execution.
The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between. But it is not at the intermediate point where both parties define their negotiating positions in what many anticipate a brutal fight to determine the economic future of the sport. And that’s why whoever emerges victorious will likely be used as a double-edged sword when formal negotiations begin in spring 2026 for the next version of the collective bargaining agreement, which expires Dec. 1, 2026.
If it’s the Dodgers, MLB owners — who have already spoken out publicly, and even more so privately, about Los Angeles spending equal to that of the six lowest-paid teams combined this year — will likely protest even more. MLB is already expected to lock out players upon the expiration of the agreement. Two consecutive Dodgers championships could embolden MLB and join the chorus of fans who see the salary cap as the panacea for the plague of million-dollar teams that have monopolized championships over the last decade.
Such a scenario would not deter the union from its anti-salary cap stance, which has been in place for half a century. The MLBPA has no intention of negotiating whether the salary cap remains in place, and considering that MLB was on the verge of losing games in 2022 due to a negotiation that did not include a cap, the players have already talked among themselves about how to deal with the loss of time in 2027. Certainly, a Brewers victory would not guarantee that that would be avoided, but in any discussion about the need for a salary cap, the union can argue that the mighty Dodgers lost to a team of self-proclaimed average players with a payroll one-quarter smaller, this reinforces the idea that team-building acumen can exist independently of financial power.
The Brewers have joined the Tampa Bay Rays and Clevenda Guardians as leaders of low-income success this decade. In the last eight years, Milwaukee has won five NL Central titles and made the playoffs seven times. With a 97-65 record this year, the Brewers boasted the best record in baseball. And they did it with a unique combination of players.
Of the 26 players on Milwaukee’s roster for the National League Championship Series, 15 arrived via trade, according to AM850 Researchincluding most of their best players (slugger Christian Yelich, catcher William Contreras, ace Freddy Peralta and Trevor Megill, the closer for most of the season). The Brewers drafted four (Brice Turang, Jacob Misiorowski, Sal Frelick and Aaron Ashby, all major contributors), signed three as Minor League free agents, acquired two through international amateur free agency (their best player, Jackson Chourio, and closer Abner Uribe) and signed one in the Minor League section of the NBA Rule 5 Draft. low season.
That leaves only one major league free agent. One. And it was left-hander José Quintana, who signed a one-year contract worth $4 million in March.
Think about it: The MLB Players Association (MLBPA), which has fought for free agency since its creation, would be announcing a team that does not invest in free agents. Strange alliances, yes, but this strengthens the union’s position: if the current system is irreparable due to lack of money, how did a team that does not spend win a championship?
The Dodgers, on the other hand, don’t have as many free agents as one might assume. They’ve also acquired the most players via trades, though only nine, and several of them, from Mookie Betts to Tyler Glasnow, Tommy Edman and Alex Vesia, play important roles on the team. Los Angeles signed five Major League free agents (including Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Blake Snell), plus two professional international free agents (Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Hyeseong Kim), two amateur international free agents (Roki Sasaki and Andy Pagés) and two Minor League free agents (Max Muncy and Justin Dean). They drafted five of their players, one more than the Brewers, whose development system is considered one of the best in baseball, and filled out their roster with Jack Dreyer, an undrafted free agent.
Dreyer highlights what the Dodgers and Brewers do exceptionally well: extracting talent from players through systems that value a combination of scouting, analytics and superior coaching. It doesn’t matter if they spend $500 million or the roughly $115 million the Brewers currently have. If they can become an organization that brings out the best in its players, victory will come.
Perhaps, if they weren’t so at odds, the league and union could agree that basing their argument on a single playoff series is foolhardy. Both sides should understand that in the big picture, a seven-game series says very little, especially when it comes to the complex economic system of $30 billion corporations competing in the same space.
But this battle is as much about narrative as it is about reality, and if MLB is going to push for a salary cap, it needs as much evidence as possible, and the Dodgers becoming the first team in a quarter-century to win two consecutive World Series would add a gem to the countless the league already cites. The last team to do so was the New York Yankees, and the competitive balance tax, the proto-limit that currently penalizes high-spending teams, arose specifically to control what other owners believed about the Bronx’s uncontrolled spending.
The Dodgers are the new Yankees, with more money and more willingness to spend than anyone else. They have won the NL West in 12 of the last 13 years and have won championships in 2020 and 2024. And despite its seeming inevitability, baseball is not suffering in most areas important to the league. Television ratings are up. Attendance has increased. The implementation of the shot clock ahead of the 2024 season modernized the game and is now almost universally appreciated. The addition of an automated ball-strike challenge system next year will only increase its appeal.
This National League Championship Series is baseball at its finest: a well-oiled machine of superstars, in their prime, looking to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions since 2000, against a team that plays lovely baseball, is extremely attractive, and always seems to succeed. The Brewers have yet to win a championship, not just in this recent streak of excellence, but in their 57-year history, and derailing the Dodgers on the way to doing so would make the story of the triumph even more memorable.
And, yes, despite their higher win total, the Brewers come into this series as the underdogs, and it’s a fair designation. Even if they swept the Dodgers in the six games they played in July. Even if their bullpen is full of destructive fireballs. Although they have hit as many home runs this postseason as Los Angeles, even though the Dodgers hit 78 more during the regular season.
There will be plenty of great baseball in Milwaukee and Los Angeles over the next week and beyond, with fans buzzing with the kind of matchups that make October the most special month of the year. Ohtani, Betts and Freeman trying to reach Misiorowski’s fastball and read his slider. Chourio, Contreras and Turang trying to solve Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow and Ohtani. The terrifying Brewers bullpen, with five relievers throwing over 97 mph, against the team that hit high-octane fastballs best this year. The Dodgers trying to figure out if they can rely on any relievers other than Sasaki, and the Brewers, who were the fifth-hardest team to strike out this season, trying to reach the Los Angeles bullpen with a barrage of balls in play.
While baseball itself will be undisputed, this National League Championship Series is bigger than the game. Its tentacles will extend into the future, with an unwitting but undeniable role in something far more momentous. It’s just a series, yes. But it is much more.
