Favorable circumstances for a dramatic and explosive period of the Cubs-Brewers I-94 rivalry have been percolating for some time. And now they arrive to a head as the 2 golf equipment meet one another within the playoffs for the primary time ever, although it’s been 27 years because the Brewers modified leagues. Fan friction invariably happens when two sports-loving cities are proximate to at least one one other (you’ll be able to drive from Milwaukee to Chicago in roughly 90 minutes alongside the southwest shore of Lake Michigan), however tensions grew right here when Cubs supervisor Craig Counsell determined to leap ship from Milwaukee to Chicago after the 2023 season.
Spurned and deserted by Counsell (and David Stearns) although the staff has been persistently (and seemingly sustainably) aggressive, Milwaukee has carried on as a scrappy throwback squad constructed on contact, velocity, and protection. Regardless of coping with an April blight of pitcher accidents so dangerous that it gave us every week of pointless torpedo bat discourse, the Brewers completed with one of the best report within the majors, received the NL Central by 5 video games, and made the postseason for the seventh time within the final eight years, although they’ve only one NLCS look in that blend. The Cubs are recent off a down-to-the-wire Wild Card Collection win in a decisive Sport 3 in opposition to the Padres by which their deep lineup tallied 13 hits, many off of fantastic (if taxed) San Diego relievers. Let’s look at the part elements of every staff in larger element to remind ourselves how every staff was assembled, and the way they arrived at this a part of the postseason.
Beginning Pitching
The Cubs rotation is stuffed with strike-throwers. They’d the lowest stroll price in baseball this yr, however ranked fourth from the underside in Ok/9.
Chicago didn’t announce its Sport 1 starter till the center of yesterday, when it grew to become recognized that lefty Matthew Boyd would take the ball on quick relaxation. The 34-year-old had a 3.4-WAR renaissance in 2025, a shade higher than his earlier profession season a whopping six years in the past. Boyd labored 4 1/3 innings on Tuesday in opposition to the Padres earlier than he was eliminated, having thrown simply 58 pitches, which could imply he’s more energizing than most pitchers who’ve misplaced one in every of their days between begins. It was the primary of a number of indications that Counsell could be proactive about bullpen utilization, and each Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon additionally labored simply 4 innings of their appearances in opposition to the Padres. (Counsell elected to make use of a right-handed opener for the primary inning of Sport 2 so he might maximize Imanaga’s workload with out having him face Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado greater than two occasions.) All three of Chicago’s presumed starters within the NLDS are likely to miss bats with their secondary stuff at a barely above-average price, however wrestle to take action with their fastballs.
The best way the off days and journey work out for this sequence will permit Boyd (in yr one in every of a two-year, $29 million deal) and the to-be-determined Sport 2 starter (each Imanaga and Taillon may have had a minimum of their regular relaxation earlier than Monday’s recreation) to begin on regular relaxation in Video games 4 and 5, in the event that they’re vital.
Milwaukee’s beginning workers is spearheaded by 29-year-old Freddy Peralta, an ultra-athletic righty with a cross-bodied supply and distinctive secondary stuff. Peralta has been among the many high 15-20 pitchers in baseball since he was moved into the rotation in 2021 and loved an enormous breakout. He’s coming off a 3.6-WAR, 2.70-ERA, 176 2/3-inning season, and is clearly one of the best starter on this sequence.
The Brewers have been coy about who will begin Sport 2, as supervisor Pat Murphy has acknowledged publicly that each 36-year-old veteran stalwart Jose Quintana (who has been out since mid-September with a calf pressure and threw stay BP final Friday) and Quinn Priester are choices. Priester was acquired from Boston after accidents made the Brewers determined for heat our bodies of their rotation. It appeared like Priester, who was becoming a member of his third org already at age 25, was an emergency, short-term patch moderately than a long-term piece of the Milwaukee postseason puzzle. As an alternative, Priester’s 3.32 ERA contributed to Brewers starters combining for the third-best mark within the league. Priester’s pitch combine (particularly his curveball) is troublesome to raise, and he was fifth within the majors in groundball price amongst pitchers who threw a minimum of 120 innings.
Sooner or later, Murphy will doubtless should lean on any variety of his a number of rookie pitchers. If it had been doable to offer a Rookie of the Yr award to a staff’s whole freshman class, then this yr’s Brew Crew would have earned that distinction. Twenty-seven-year-old swingman/fifth starter Chad Patrick, a former fourth rounder out of Purdue who hopped through commerce from Arizona to Oakland in 2023 after which to Milwaukee in 2024, was your 2025 rookie pitcher WAR chief and one other key early-season stabilizer within the Brewers rotation, although he struggled late within the yr. Fireballing 23-year-old righty Jacob Misiorowski is fairly simply probably the most gifted of all Brewers pitchers, however he issued too many walks down the stretch of the common season and didn’t precisely seize a postseason rotation spot. It’d make sense for him to begin Sport 3, if solely so the youngest pitcher on the roster can preserve his pre-start routine, even when it means Murphy retains Misiorowski on a brief leash if he seems to be wild throughout a few innings.
Bullpens
If the Brewers decide to deploying Misiorowski completely from their bullpen, then it means they’ll have three righty relievers with premium late-inning stuff. Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill even have fastballs that sit within the 98-100 mph vary, and behind them are Jared Koenig and Aaron Ashby, who’ve unusual velocity for guys who’re in any other case funky, misleading lefties. Anticipate the highest half of the Cubs lineup (which is usually left-handed) to see numerous Ashby and Koenig in key spots. Milwaukee additionally has a number of relievers who can present multi-inning size — Tobias Myers, Robert Gasser, Misiorowski, Patrick, DL Corridor — ought to any of its starters wrestle to work deep into the sport.
Chicago’s bullpen has been cobbled along with journeymen of their mid-to-late 30s. Solely Daniel Palencia and Michael Soroka are underneath 30, whereas 5 of the Cubs relievers are 35 or older. Based mostly on their Wild Card Collection utilization, Counsell’s hierarchy is led by Palencia (deployed within the recreation’s greatest moments, no matter inning), sinkerballing righties Andrew Kittredge and Brad Keller, and lefty slider dynamo Drew Pomeranz. The Cubs have a pair different lefty-specialist sorts in Taylor Rogers and Caleb Thielbar, and a few lengthy males in Colin Rea (perhaps additionally a sneaky choice to make a begin, extra doubtless subsequent spherical in the event that they advance), Aaron Civale, and Soroka. The best way Kittredge and Pomeranz have maintained their stuff as they’ve aged, and the leap Keller has made since becoming a member of the Cubs and transferring to reduction full time, has given this bullpen actual tooth past Palencia. General, although, the Brewers have a deeper, nastier group.
Place Gamers
Each the Brewers and Cubs had among the many best offenses in baseball this yr. Each had been high six in WAR era, with the Cubs ending third; each completed inside the highest 5 in stolen bases, and the highest 10 in stroll price, strikeout price, and wRC+. If there’s a niche right here, it’s that the Cubs have a number of extra harmful energy hitters than the Brewers do. Solely two Brewers (Christian Yelich and Jackson Chourio) hit 20 homers or extra, whereas the Cubs had six guys do it, together with their eight-hole hitter, Dansby Swanson. Sandwiched amongst all these sluggers is second baseman Nico Hoerner, among the best pure contact hitters within the sport.
The Brewers are a staff that retains the road transferring, filled with a number of smaller, speedy, pesky contact hitters who complement one another’s expertise and permit Murphy to play favorable matchups all through the sport. Whereas we’d see the Cubs pinch-hit for Matt Shaw and make zero different place participant subs in a recreation, the Brewers may empty their bench on any given evening. Contemplating how Counsell managed his starters’ workloads within the Wild Card spherical, there may be going to be numerous mid-game chess performed right here as he goes to his bullpen and Murphy decides whether or not to make early modifications to his lineup. Murphy tends to be most lively enjoying matchups along with his nook outfielders and first basemen, whereas guys like Yelich, Chourio, and Brice Turang (who took a giant step ahead as a hitter this yr and led Milwaukee in WAR) are everlasting fixtures. Two of these aforementioned Brewers rookies (former Division-III faculty participant and offseason commerce acquisition Caleb Durbin, and former minor league Rule-5 choose Isaac Collins) haven’t solely taken distinctive paths right here, however each are legit Rookie of the Yr candidates. Durbin is among the league’s higher pure contact hitters, and Collins is well-rounded switch-hitter who ought to begin in opposition to lefties on this sequence.
Maybe one of the best and most fun facet of this tilt, nonetheless, will likely be watching each of those groups play protection. Cubs heart fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong has absurd vary and even higher ball expertise. His capability to slip and contort his physique on the catch level may be unmatched in baseball proper now. Swanson has been one of many higher shortstop defenders in baseball for the final decade and made a number of consequential performs within the Wild Card Collection, and Hoerner is a succesful shortstop masquerading at second base. Milwaukee’s infield is stuffed with viable shortstops. Turang is among the higher highschool infield defenders I’ve ever seen, and he’s enjoying second base on this staff as a result of Joey Ortiz is a greater, extra acrobatic shortstop. Blake Perkins is a dynamic outfield defender who can present a late-game defensive improve at two spots concurrently, as a result of his incorporation means transferring Jackson Chourio to a nook, which can also be often an improve.
Managers
Lastly, the meatiest narrative factor of this sequence is the managerial matchup. Murphy coached Counsell at Notre Dame from 1989 to 1992 — he as soon as broke Counsell’s nostril whereas hitting him offended fungos after Counsell had made a bunch of errors — after which later left to educate at Arizona State within the mid-90s and overlapped with Counsell in Phoenix whereas the latter was with the Diamondbacks. After a traditionally important head teaching profession (he was the youngest faculty coach to 500 wins and went to 4 School World Collection with the Solar Devils), Murphy was ousted from ASU in 2009 for recruiting violations, most of which wouldn’t be thought of so underneath right this moment’s guidelines for collegiate athletes (although there have been some Steve Ballmer-Kawhi Leonard parallels involving Murphy’s nonprofit). Murphy labored for the Padres for half a decade earlier than Counsell grew to become the Milwaukee supervisor and employed him as his bench coach. The 2 labored collectively till Counsell left for the Cubs job a pair years in the past.
I requested hoagie-eating buddy of the ‘Graph and ESPN faculty baseball broadcaster Mike Rooney, a teammate of Counsell’s at Notre Dame and later an assistant underneath Murphy at ASU, in regards to the their dynamic. “They’ve at all times been so shut, however they’re so totally different, particularly from a persona and magnificence standpoint,” Rooney stated. “Counsell stated that’s precisely why he employed him. I’m biased in fact, however I don’t know if I’ve ever met somebody so in tune along with his personal private blind spots and biases. It’s type of a superpower.”