Dodgers-Brewers NLCS position by position breakdown

For the first time in 50 years, the National League Championship Series will feature a pair of 100-win teams, with the 103-win Brewers hosting the 100-win Dodgers starting Sunday night in Milwaukee.

It's going to be good. Really good.

More importantly, though: It’s a rematch of last year’s NLCS, which ended up being far less competitive than the records and seeding would have you believe. It wasn’t just that the Dodgers won in a four-game sweep, or that Shohei Ohtani had what might have been The Best Game Of All Time in Game 4; it was that the Brewers scored all of four runs and hit .118/.191/.193 while doing so. It's not just about going to the World Series. It's a little about revenge, too.

There are a lot of returning faces on both sides, but these are also two very different squads than they were just a year ago. As we run through a position-by-position breakdown of the two best teams in the National League, remember this: It’s not just about “who played well, or didn’t, in the Division Series.” That can be a tiebreaker, but there’s so much more to it than that.

Catcher

This, right here, is exactly why it’s not just “look at the previous series,” because William Contreras was very good (1.194 OPS) while Will Smith was not (.125 OPS), but also that’s 34 total plate appearances between the two of them, and surely those numbers don’t reflect the skill level of either side. Over the last two seasons, Smith (.854) has been a considerably better hitter than Contreras (.756), but the gap closed somewhat this year, and then Smith missed much of the second half due to a neck injury. There’s not a lot of daylight here on defense, either, as both rate as solid enough but moderately below-average.

At their peak, these are two of the best catchers in the game, and Smith’s hitting track record is more accomplished. We’re just not so sure he’s at his peak right now – and Milwaukee backup Gary Sánchez is far more of an offensive threat than Los Angeles' Hunter Feduccia.

Advantage: Brewers

First Base

If we’re talking about reputation, there’s no competition at all here. Freddie Freeman is a future first-ballot Hall of Famer, while Jake Bauers, as strong a year as he’s had, is a 30-year-old journeyman who is finally having his first strong, full season. Bauers’ year was so good, in fact, that it was better than Freeman's. (The Dodgers' 10-time All-Star dealt with age and injury and posted a sub-.800 OPS for the first time since 2012.) It’s encouraging how much better Freeman’s swing looked after using the bye to rework his timing, after which he was excellent against Atlanta.

The much longer track record of Freeman might be enough to tilt this toward him, but also, watch out for a small thing that could loom large in this series, which is that Freeman remains one of the truly elite first basemen at saving throws from his infielders, while it’s not a strength of Bauers’. We saw that on both sides in the Division Series. It might end up mattering in a big spot in the NLCS.

Advantage: Dodgers

Second Base

Finally, an easy one. The Dodgers can make a lot out of mixing and matching Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernández here, and we’ve certainly seen enough of Hernández's October magic over the years to know that he ups his game in these spots.

But also, Turang has become one of the best all-around second basemen in the sport – perhaps the best – having added unexpectedly strong power to go with high-quality defense. How does a team like Milwaukee continue to win this many games, every single year? Players like Turang exceeding all expectations is a good place to start.

Advantage: Brewers

Shortstop

Somewhat similar to Freeman, future Hall of Famer Mookie Betts had a year that was not near his usual standards, though that turned around big-time in September, which ended up being one of the best months of his career. Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt, who turned 22 in August, probably doesn’t get enough credit for coming up mid-season and posting a .350 OBP, which is excellent for most any hitter, much less a first-timer.

Pratt has dealt with some defensive issues in October, and while most scouting reports indicate he should be a plus glove for years to come, it’s hard to take his over that of Betts right now, and there’s an obvious power advantage on the Dodgers' side here.

Advantage: Dodgers

Third Base

Joey Ortiz, who moved over from shortstop when Pratt was promoted, gets most of the time here, though David Hamilton will spot in as well. Ortiz’s glove is fantastic; Hamilton’s speed is elite; there’s a lot that manager Pat Murphy can do here.

But after all these years, Max Muncy is still chugging along, hitting 29 homers this year with a bat 29% better than average, plus a glove that – if certainly not as great as Ortiz’s – is at least league-average. While, again, these aren’t just about “what happened last series,” it’s at least worth noting that Muncy had more homers (three) in the Division Series than Ortiz and Hamilton had hits, combined (two).

Advantage: Dodgers

Left Field

Jackson Chourio is a superstar. Full stop. You know all about the bat, of course; a third-straight 20-homer season by the end of his age-22 season doesn’t happen by accident, but he’s not getting enough credit for how strong his defense is, too. Consider this: In the second half, only one outfielder played more valuable defense than Chourio did, and that was Pete Crow-Armstrong, who looks like he’s going to be a generational defender.

It’s true that Teoscar Hernández ended his year on a hot streak, but you’d take Chourio, easily, on both sides of the ball.

Advantage: Brewers

Center Field

Milwaukee’s Garrett Mitchell had a bit of a breakout year, punctuated by an excellent catch to keep Manny Machado out of the seats in the final game of the NLDS. Andy Pages knows something about big-time postseason catches, obviously, and while each player here is an excellent defender, Pages rates better, among baseball’s best.

That leaves it to the bats, and while Pages’ season was more than a little up-and-down, he hit better overall, struck out less – if you care about that sort of thing – and was considerably better down the stretch. There’s not a great deal of separation here, really. All the small edges point to Pages, particularly given that Mitchell was only average against lefties, and the Dodgers are expected to start two of them.

Advantage: Dodgers

Right Field

Kyle Tucker had a miserable first year with Los Angeles. No way around that, really; all a good September did was get his season line back to league average (100 OPS+). It’s true that he’s got the track record, and it’s true that he was actually quite good in the Division Series, but 2026 in general went so poorly for him that we really expected he was not getting an edge here.

But: Sal Frelick (70 OPS+) didn’t hit at all this year either, nor did 21-year-old rookie Luis Lara (77 OPS+). While you’d take the Milwaukee duo on defense, right field for the Brewers was one of the weakest spots of any team. We don’t feel strongly about Tucker here. We don’t even feel great about it. It’s just hard to reason otherwise.

Advantage: Dodgers

Designated Hitter

What does one do with Ohtani here? He's well-deserving of every accolade that places him among the most incredible players in history, but right now he's strictly a DH -- one who, due to a series of injuries, hasn’t hit all that much lately. As happened in the NL MVP race, where Crow-Armstrong took advantage of a less-than-peak Ohtani to (almost certainly) edge into the lead, the door is open here for what is usually unthinkable: A player you’d take over Ohtani. Christian Yelich, a two-time MVP, certainly has the accolades to be that player.

However, it's been years since those peak seasons, and Yelich had a career-low .692 OPS this year. Even in Ohtani’s diminished second half, he still out-hit Yelich. Ohtani, for the first time in a while, has much to prove. Yelich just hasn’t proven yet that he’s a better option. It's still not that hard to see that changing over the next week.

Advantage: Dodgers

Starting Pitchers

We’d love to say “pass” here, because imagine picking. Do you want the rotation with the highest strikeout rate, or the one with the lowest ERA in the NL? Do you even need to know which is which? Imagine choosing between Game 1 starters “the most dominant per-inning flamethrower ever” or “the back-to-back Cy Young winner.” Imagine looking at Logan Henderson, who has a 2.33 ERA through his first 23 career starts, and not obviously thinking he’s one of the best the sport has to offer.

It’s pretty difficult to make a choice at the top of the rotation, but now that we’re in a best-of-seven series, depth matters. Maybe you prefer Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto over Jacob Misiorowski and Henderson; maybe you don’t. The real difference here is that the Dodgers can still roll out Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow after that, while the Brewers, who no longer seem to trust Kyle Harrison, may have to go with Dustin May and Robert Gasser, with all hands on deck behind them. That’s still really, really, good. It’s just second best in this series.

Advantage: Dodgers

Relief pitchers

Brewers relievers threw 19 innings and allowed one run in the Division Series. That’s an 0.47 ERA. They’re not that good, obviously, and in fact their strikeout rate was actually down from the regular season. But still: That's a 0.47 ERA, outdueling the more-celebrated Padres collection, with the late-inning trio of Abner Uribe, Trevor Megill, and Aaron Ashby particularly standing out.

If you were really confident in Edwin Díaz, or Roki Sasaki, or the health of Edgardo Henriquez’s back, you might be able to talk yourself into the Dodgers, particularly given the renaissance of Tanner Scott and the return of Evan Phillips. But while the Brewers' rotation isn’t quite as strong as that of the Dodgers, the Los Angeles bullpen just has a few more question marks than Milwaukee’s does. Even if, perhaps, one of those starters moonlights as an as-needed reliever.

Advantage: Brewers

Prediction

Milwaukee will all but certainly put up a better fight than they did last year. They’re a better team than they were last year, with an effective, modern style, and you simply do not win 103 games by accident. With an ascendant star in Chourio and a true ace in Misiorowski, they have the elite top-level talent to go with a deep, good roster. They have the home-field advantage, too. They have a lot going for them. This may in fact be the year. (It would help if the inconsistent defense from the NLDS tightened up a little.)

This one’s going to come down to one simple question: Can the Brewers' offense do enough damage against that incredible Dodgers rotation? It’s not about “small ball” or “advanced thinking,” because none of that matters here. It’s about putting runs on the board.

We think the answer to that might be: sometimes. Enough to win several games. But it’s been proven endlessly that you can’t win in the playoffs without power, and while Milwaukee does have more than they get credit for – Bauers, Turang, and Chourio all hit more than 20 homers – it’s a fight against history.

Put it this way: Can Milwaukee win this series despite the power deficit they bring, as compared to Los Angeles? Yes. Absolutely. They do enough other things well. They’re just going to have to be the ones to prove that for the first time in years, it can be done.

Advantage: Dodgers in 7.