No later than Halloween night, baseball will have a new first-time World Series champion. The National League-best Milwaukee Brewers and American League-best Tampa Bay Rays will meet in this year's Fall Classic, where both will compete for their first World Series title. The Brewers have been to the World Series once previously (1982).
This is Tampa's third pennant (also 2008 and 2020). By way of preview, let's go through this year's two World Series participants and not just compare the Brewers and Rays position-by-position, but pick our favorites and build an All-World Series roster. We'll cobble together a starting lineup and select a preferred rotation and bullpen.
Here now is our 2026 All-World Series roster. Liam Hicks does not have the Contreras name recognition, but he's a very good player. In fact, Hicks outhit Contreras during the regular season (126 OPS+ vs. 108 OPS+) and matched him in WAR (3.0 for both).
Ultimately, Contreras is the pick here and, honestly, I don't think it's a difficult decision. He's a better defender and he's thoroughly outhit Hicks during the postseason, plus he's the undisputed starter. Hicks will occasionally sit against lefties in favor of Nick Fortes.
When in doubt, pick the guy who doesn't get platooned. Contreras is my All-World Series team catcher. This may not be much of a secret anymore following his NLCS MVP performance, but did you know Bauers ranked 13th among qualified hitters with a 140 OPS+ during the regular season?
He was just behind Elly De La Cruz and Shohei Ohtani. Bauers, a former Ray, has put together the two signature at-bats of the postseason. He had a 12-pitch walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 of the NLCS, and an 11-pitch go-ahead homer against Blake Snell in Game 3.
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