Texas Rangers: 7 Lessons From The Champion Brewers

If you want to be the best, then you need to learn from the best. The Texas Rangers could learn a lot from the World Series champion Milwaukee Brewers.

Milwaukee dominated 2026, accomplishing baseball’s best regular season record before going 11-2 in the postseason and securing their first World Series title. The Rangers won their first World Series title only three years ago, but having missed the playoffs each season since and with only a handful of players remaining from their title team, it’s time to rethink how they can return to glory. Analyzing the Brewers’ success is a great place to start.

Here are 7 learnings from the world champions that should inspire the Texas Rangers’ 2027 plans.

1. You Can Win Without A Bevy Of Stars

It’s one thing to compare your team to the 2024 Dodgers, a championship squad filled with superstars like Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and Clayton Kershaw.

The Brewers, one could argue, won without superstars. They had several great players, some of whom will become superstars. But they proved a team can win it all without marquee names, enormous contracts, or MVP candidates. Even with a potential Cy Young winner in Jacob Misiorowski leading the way, Milwaukee proved it didn’t need its ace to win. The Brewers went 7-2 in the postseason when Misiorowski wasn’t on the mound.

There is more than one way to win a championship. The Rangers won in 2023 after acquiring high-dollar stars in Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, and Aroldis Chapman. They no longer have that luxury given their tight budget now and for the foreseeable future, so they may need to rip a page out of the Brewers’ playbook, emphasizing player development and team-friendly contracts if they want to push for another championship anytime soon.

2. Bullpen Capability Cannot Be Overlooked

The Brewers won the World Series because of ___________. You could fill in the blank with many a reason, but the top reason may be their dominant bullpen. Brewers relievers pitched 61 innings in the postseason and allowed eight earned runs for a 1.18 ERA.

Aaron Ashby, Trevor Megill, and Abner Uribe allowed four runs across 38.2 innings for a 0.93 ERA. Opponents might as well have waved the white flag once the Brewers turned the game over to the pen.

Bullpen dominance is no secret to postseason success. We all know what Aroldis Chapman, Josh Sborz, and Will Smith meant to the Rangers’ World Series victory in 2023. But perhaps Milwaukee’s success will be a firm slap on the forehead to a Rangers team that had the 23rd-ranked bullpen in 2026.

It starts with adding velocity. Rangers relievers ranked 23rd in average fastball velocity and 23rd in ERA. Brewers relievers ranked 4th in average velocity and 3rd in ERA.

3. A Patient Offense Is A Successful Offense

The Brewers ranked 23rd in Whiff %, 30th in Chase %, 30th in Swing %, and 1st in OBP. They saw the second-most pitches of any team in baseball. Translation: they had a supremely patient offense that reached base often and put themselves in position to score runs.

They made the pitcher work, swung at pitches they could hit, and did whatever they could to get on base — simple, smart, fundamental offensive approaches executed at the highest level.

How did the Rangers’ offensive approach compare? Texas saw the 24th-most pitches, ranked 7th in Whiff %, 6th in Swing %, and 14th in OBP. They did not have near the production of the eventual world champs.

4. Style Of Play Can Overwhelm Opponents

All season long, the Brewers suffocated opponents. On offense, they put the ball in play, stole bases, bunted to advance runners, bunted for hits, and reached base at a high clip.

On defense, pitchers threw strikes and overpowered hitters, while fielders prevented extra bases and extra outs.

They won 114 games in 2026 not through extravagance, but through pristine fundamentals and intentionality. They overwhelmed opponents by doing all the little things right. Opponents felt pressure to play near-perfect baseball because that’s what they felt it would take to conquer the Brewers.

It’s a beautiful, envious style of baseball. The good news is it’s teachable, and the Rangers can adopt such a style just as any team in baseball can.

5. You Can Win Inexpensively

According to Spotrac, the Milwaukee Brewers had the 19th-highest payroll in 2026. Christian Yelich had the highest salary at $27 million and Brandon Woodruff the second-highest at $22 million. No other Brewers player had a salary exceeding $12 million.

Instead of pushing the boundaries of free agency, the Brewers invest in their own. They’ve already signed several of their top young players to long-term contracts, including Jackson Chourio, Cooper Pratt, and Luis Lara. These players can play freely and confidently knowing they have financial stability and a home for many years to come.

Of course, it helps that much of the talent they’ve drafted, acquired, and developed is worthy of long-term contracts. The same cannot be said for the Texas Rangers and their current batch of young major leaguers.

6. Aggressive Speed Kills

The Brewers ranked 5th in MLB with 162 stolen bases in the 2026 season. Six Brewers stole at least two bases in the postseason, and the Brewers’ 19 total stolen bases led all playoff teams.

Speed and aggressive baserunning paid dividends for a team that scored the second-most runs in MLB despite ranking 28th in home runs. Swiping bags was part of their winning formula from April to October.

Milwaukee’s World Series opponent, the Tampa Bay Rays, stole the third-most bases in the regular season. The Texas Rangers ranked 26th in stolen bases.

7. Winning Requires An Identity

The Brewers offense led the majors in batting average and OBP, and ranked in the top five in stolen bases and sacrifice hits. They were the most productive unit in baseball and a joy to watch because they always seemed to have traffic on the base paths and come up with the big hit.

Their offense had an identity — a purpose — to keep the train moving and maintain pressure on the opponent. It was cohesive, steady, free-flowing, and relentless.

All season, the Rangers struggled to find an offensive identity. The Texas offense was inconsistent and fragmented. Few hitters could be trusted from game to game, and rallies were few and far between. Skip Schumaker could never settle on a lineup because nothing he crafted worked long term.

The Rangers have to establish an identity and begin building towards it this offseason. It doesn’t have to be the same identity as the Brewers, but that wouldn’t be a bad place to start.