The MLB postseason is underway, with eight teams taking part in Wild Card round action.
And as I write that sentence, three teams are already out.
But Edmonton Oilers fans looking to combine early-season hockey with October baseball are still in luck. The Milwaukee Brewers, who are once again the National League's top team heading into the playoffs, are the team most akin to the Oilers in many respects.
If you're still looking for a team to back in this year's edition of October baseball, here's why I think Oilers fans should adopt the Brewers as their playoff team.
In a way, they're both small market franchises
While the Oilers are worth around $2.75 billion, roughly $850 million higher than that of the Brewers, the two teams are similar in that they are located in smaller market cities in comparison to some of the other areas in their respective leagues.
In the case of Edmonton, the city is the second-smallest Canadian NHL market in terms of Census Metropolitan Area. But when compared to the population size of the league's United States-based markets, Edmonton only finds itself ahead of Buffalo and Salt Lake City.
As for Milwaukee, the city is the smallest of MLB's 30 markets and ranks below the middle of the pack in terms of payroll; unlike the NHL, MLB does not have a salary cap or floor.
The Brewers also have a quartet of superstars ...
Like how the Oilers have Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, and Evan Bouchard at the forefront of their success, the Brewers have a quarter of top-level players to help them secure division titles and contend for a first World Series title.
Starting pitcher Jacob Misoirowski is coming off of a strong 30-start campaign with the Brewers. He finished the season with a 16-5 record, a 1.80 earned run average (the amount of runs per game a pitcher directly concedes; this is similar in some respects to a goaltender's goals against average in that it measures how many points are conceded by a player/team), and 252 strikeouts.
As a result, he found himself among the league's top pitchers in each of those categories for the regular season; he was tied for the second-most amount of wins by a pitcher and he led the league in terms of both strikeouts and earned run average.
When he's on the mound, Misirowski throws to catcher William Contreras, who is coming off a 2026 campaign that saw him record 153 hits, 94 RBIs (runs batted in), and 18 home runs.
The big-name veteran of the Brewers' offense is Christian Yelich, who was recently named as the franchise's first captain. The one-time National League MVP recorded just over 100 hits and 12 home runs during the 2026 campaign, which saw him play 118 total games (42 fewer than last year). He's recorded at least 100 hits in four of the last five seasons and he's hit at least 10 home runs in each of the last four campaigns.
Keeping on the topic of hitting, let's talk about left fielder Jackson Chourio. He's coming off a season where he recorded 152 hits and 25 home runs in 127 games played. The latter metric represented the third consecutive season in which he hit at least 20 home runs.
... and a long-running quest for a championship
Since ending a seven-year playoff drought in 2018, the Brewers have made it to eight of the last nine postseason tournaments; they've also won their division five times since that season. But while they've made it to the National League Championship Series (MLB's equivalent of the Conference Finals) twice since 2018, those have also acted as the only two occasions over the past eight years where the Brewers have won a playoff series. In addition, the Brewers have not been to the World Series in 44 years and they have yet to win that championship round.
While the Oilers haven't had the same level of postseason struggles as the Brewers, there are some similarities. For one, it has been over 36 years since the Oilers last won the Stanley Cup, which is just eight years longer than Milwaukee's World Series appearance drought. And like the Brewers, to some extent, the Oilers have not yet won the Pacific or its predecessor, the Northwest Division.
The path forward
The Brewers will contest an National League Division Series (NLDS) encounter with the San Diego Padres, who bested the Chicago Cubs in their wild card series, starting on Saturday. If the Brewers win that best-of-five series, they'll take on one of the Los Angeles Dodgers (the two-time World Series winners), Philadelphia Phillies (who are four years removed from a World Series berth), or the Atlanta Braves (who won the World Series in 2021) in the National League Championship Series (NLCS).
The winner of that round will represent the National League in the World Series and take on one of either the Tampa Bay Rays (who made it to the World Series in 2020), the New York Yankees (who represented the American League in the 2024 World Series), the Chicago White Sox (who just won their first playoff series since 2005), or the Cleveland Guardians (who qualified for the 2016 World Series).
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