Cubs-Brewers position-by-position breakdown

We've got a Brewers-Cubs rivalry showdown in the National League Division Series -- and it's the highest-stakes meeting ever for these two NL Central foes.

Chicago just knocked off the Padres in a winner-take-all Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. Awaiting them in the next round? MLB's best team in the 2025 regular season: 97-win Milwaukee. Game 1 is set for Saturday at 2:08 p.m. ET/1:08 p.m. CT at American Family Field.

These two teams are evenly matched. Just look at the season series between them: The Cubs won seven of those games, the Brewers six. The NLDS will also be an intriguing clash of styles: the slugging Cubs, who hit 223 home runs in the regular season, vs. the ultra-aggressive small-ball Brewers, who make their own luck.

The Brewers and Cubs have plenty of history between them, right down to their two skippers. But they've never met in the postseason.

So who has the edge in their first playoff matchup? Here's the breakdown, position by position.

Catcher

William Contreras and Carson Kelly were two of the stronger offensive catchers in the National League this season (and they're both solid behind the plate). Contreras had 17 home runs and a 111 OPS+ for the Brewers, and Kelly had 17 homers and a 119 OPS+ for the Cubs. Contreras has the stronger track record -- he has a 122 OPS+ since joining Milwaukee in 2023 and garnered MVP votes in each of his first two seasons -- but he's also playing through a bruised left hand. And Kelly is hot at the plate, coming off a Wild Card Series where he hit .375 with a home run. Still, if Contreras' hand isn't hampering him too much, he has the higher ceiling to be a game-changer in the NLDS.

Advantage: Brewers

First base

Michael Busch has been awesome for the Cubs all year, and he just helped send them to the NLDS with a clutch home run in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. Andrew Vaughn might be having a magical resurgence with the Brewers (.308 batting average, .869 OPS in 64 games), but he's cooled off from a power-hitting standpoint, with no home runs in his final 35 games of the regular season. The Brewers also have Jake Bauers as a left-handed-hitting option, and there's Rhys Hoskins, who was nowhere to be seen down the stretch and seems unlikely to even make the NLDS roster. Either way, this one goes to the Cubs.

Advantage: Cubs

Second base

Nico Hoerner and Brice Turang could both reasonably claim to be the best second baseman in baseball this year. Hoerner is an elite defender (eighth-most outs above average among MLB infielders this season), while Turang was the more dangerous hitter (18 home runs and a 121 OPS+ to Hoerner's seven homers and 114 OPS+, although Hoerner's contact skills are elite). And both players can wreak havoc on the bases (29 steals for Hoerner, 24 for Turang).

Hoerner had a strong Wild Card Series, batting .364, but Turang is coming off a monster second half (.308 average, .916 OPS, 12 home runs), and he was terrific in last year's playoffs -- batting .455 with three doubles in three games against the Mets. Turang also killed the Cubs all year, batting .348 with a .902 OPS against them in 13 games, while the Brewers held Hoerner to a .255 average and .595 OPS while striking him out at nearly three times his overall season rate. Maybe Turang just has Chicago's number.

Advantage: Brewers

Third base

Both teams are starting rookies at third base -- 25-year-old Caleb Durbin for the Brewers and 23-year-old Matt Shaw for the Cubs. Neither one has been a phenom, exactly, but Durbin has been a little more of a productive all-around big leaguer, and he has a standout trait as a hitter in his bat-to-ball skill. Durbin's swing-and-miss rate (13%) and strikeout rate (9.9%) ranked in the best 5% of MLB hitters, and so did his squared-up rate (33.5%), which reflects how often he hits the ball on the sweet spot of the bat. Shaw's rocky rookie season continued in the Wild Card Series, when he went hitless in seven at-bats with five strikeouts.

Advantage: Brewers

Shortstop

Dansby Swanson was one of the stars of the Wild Card Series just for his defense at shortstop, so he can cancel out the Brewers' Joey Ortiz on that front, even though Ortiz himself is an excellent defender. But Ortiz is one of the lightest-hitting shortstops in the Majors (66 OPS+ in 2025), and Swanson is an above-average hitter who had 24 home runs, 20 stolen bases and 77 RBIs in the regular season. The Cubs just have a lot more offense at the shortstop position.

Advantage: Cubs

Left field

The Cubs have "Mr. Consistency" Ian Happ in left field, whose 23 home runs and 120 OPS+ in the regular season look like every Ian Happ season. Meanwhile, we'll have to see if the Brewers play Jackson Chourio in left field over Isaac Collins. They started to do that down the stretch when Collins, one of the NL Rookie of the Year favorites for much of the season, slumped badly in September. But Chourio didn't quite look like himself either after returning from a hamstring strain at the end of August, although the 21-year-old still finished with his second straight 20-20 season and had an electric first playoff series vs. the Mets in 2024 (.455 batting average, two home runs in three games). We'll give the edge to Happ and the Cubs for now, but whether Chourio plays here or in center, he could always steal the series.

Advantage: Cubs

Center field

If Chourio is in center for the Brewers, we'd have a battle of two of the most exciting young outfielders in baseball between him and Pete Crow-Armstrong. If Chourio is in left and Blake Perkins is in center, well, at least we'd have PCA. Now, PCA did look lost at the plate for the first two games of the Wild Card Series -- just like he did for most of the second half -- going 0-for-6 with five strikeouts. But in the winner-take-all Game 3, he showed up bigtime. Crow-Armstrong set the tone for the Cubs on defense with a sliding catch on a Manny Machado line drive in the first inning that had a 10% catch probability, and he set the tone on offense by smacking an RBI single to open the scoring, his first of three hits in the game. If that's the PCA we get in the Division Series, it'll be fun to watch.

Advantage: Cubs

Right field

Assuming Kyle Tucker is still at DH due to the lingering effects of his calf strain, that sets up an interesting matchup in right field between Seiya Suzuki and the Brewers' Sal Frelick. In Suzuki, you have a big slugger who has 33 home runs and 104 RBIs across the regular season and postseason. Even though Suzuki slumped through most of the second half, he's been on a tear since the last week of the regular season, with six homers and eight extra-base hits over his last seven games including the Wild Card Series.

On the other side is Frelick, who's the opposite of Suzuki and fits right into the Brewers' style -- he's a contact hitter extraordinaire (just a 12.8% swing-and-miss rate and 13.5% strikeout rate) who plays great defense and runs the bases aggressively. He can also ambush pitchers and yank a ball over the right-field fence (12 home runs this season, all to the pull side), which is exactly what he did in Game 3 of the 2024 Wild Card Series ... a series in which he also hit .364. Now, Suzuki could easily have a bigger NLDS if he crushes a couple of home runs, but call this a gut feeling: Someone on this pesky Brewers team is going to come up with some big hits in the NLDS, and that someone is going to be Frelick.

Advantage: Brewers

Designated hitter

If Tucker's still at DH, the matchup between him and Christian Yelich could go either way. Yelich, the Brewers' veteran leader, had one of his best seasons in years, finishing the 2025 regular season with 29 homers and 103 RBIs. But Tucker at his best is an even more dangerous hitter than Yelich. Will we get Tucker at his best, though? He scuffled after returning to the Cubs' lineup in late September … until the end of the Wild Card Series, when he found his swing and notched hits in three of his last five at-bats. Can he keep things rolling in the NLDS? We think he can. Tucker had Milwaukee's number this season (.314 batting average, .952 OPS in 10 games), and the Cubs had Yelich's (.170 average, .618 OPS in 13 games).

Advantage: Cubs

Starting pitching

The one ace-level pitcher you're going to see in this series is Freddy Peralta, who will get the ball for the Brewers in Game 1. Peralta went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA and 204 strikeouts in 176 2/3 innings this season and was one of the best pitchers in the National League. The Brewers' first-round bye means he'll be able to pitch twice in the NLDS, and Milwaukee will also have the breakout Quinn Priester (13-3, 3.32 ERA, 132 strikeouts in 157 1/3 innings) ready to go. The Cubs don't have the luxury of resetting their rotation after Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon all pitched in the Wild Card Series. The Brewers should have the ability to get their best guys the ball in more games, and that's enough to give them the edge here.

Advantage: Brewers

Bullpen

The Cubs' bullpen was sensational down the stretch (30.8% strikeout rate) and sensational in the Wild Card Series (one run in 13 2/3 innings against the Padres, not counting Imanaga's "bulk" outing following opener Andrew Kittredge in Game 2). But the Brewers' bullpen has been great all year, and their relievers -- particularly Abner Uribe, the presumed closer right now, and lefty Jared Koenig -- are well rested entering the NLDS. Milwaukee also has Trevor Megill back as a late-inning option after a right flexor strain sidelined him for most of September. And the X-factor? Jacob Misiorowski. The Miz had a rocky second half, but he has absolutely electric stuff, and he could pitch out of the bullpen in the Division Series. The Cubs' quartet of Brad Keller, Daniel Palencia, Drew Pomeranz and Kittredge holds its own against any team right now, but they've already had to throw a lot of high-leverage innings in these playoffs. Small edge to the Brewers and their fresh 'pen.

Advantage: Brewers

Prediction

Is this the year the Brewers finally win in October? They've suffered early exits in each of their last five postseason appearances going back to 2019. And there are questions about whether their brand of baseball can carry them through the postseason, when power hitting is, historically, extremely important.

We're saying "Yes." The Cubs have the bigger names, but this Brewers team is greater than the sum of its parts. The Brew Crew gets it done over their division rivals in a hard-fought series.

Brewers in four