Even while playing in some of the MLB markets and with some of the lowest salaries in the league, the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays have acquired and developed several players who have broken through to the mainstream.
Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski’s reach speed has made it unfathomable that all of his stars should be watching his debut in his second major league season. Rays third baseman Junior Caminero shined in the 2025 Home Run Derby, and his display of slugging at such a young age captured the hearts of the casual fan. Jackson Chourio — nine months younger than Caminero — has already climbed to the top of Milwaukee’s all-time scoring leader. Freddy Peralta became a two-time All-Star with the Brewers before being traded twice in the span of eight months and earning the honors with Tampa Bay on his way to ALCS MVP. Christian Yelich won the NL MVP in his first season with the Brewers in 2018 and is the undisputed face of the franchise, recently earning the distinction of captain. Brewers catcher William Contreras and Rays designated hitter Yandy Diaz have become staples in their respective lineups and have delivered several huge swings this season.
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Those players are most likely to appreciate the promotional graphics and appear in the hype for the 122nd World Series, which begins Friday in Milwaukee. But the Brewers and their rosters are stacked with crucial contributors who could have a huge impact on how this Fall Classic plays out. Here are 14 such players to get to know, broken down into pairs, which also highlight some of the parallels between these clubs.
Easy picks: Rays RHP Drew Rasmussen & Brewers 1B Jake Bauers
Rasmussen has overcome three arm surgeries — two Tommy John procedures during his college career, plus internal bracelet surgery in 2023 — to emerge as one of the top starting pitchers in the American League and an All-Star the past two seasons. When he becomes a full-time starter in 2022, his 2.74 ERA ranks fourth among pitchers with at least 500 innings pitched, behind only Tarik Skubal (2.64), Blake Snell (2.69) and Chris Sale (2.71). The Rays committed to Oregon State after his junior year, but he stayed in school and signed for baseball with the Brewers a year later. Milwaukee developed Rasmussen and saw him debut in 2020 before trading him to Tampa Bay as the primary return in the deal that sent Willy Adams to Milwaukee.
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Bauers, arguably the The breakout star of this post thanks to his epic, long-running battles with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell, he also made his major league debut with a World Series opponent. Bauers is the Brewers’ seventh MLB pick, drafted by San Diego out of high school and traded to the Rays shortly after. He discussed with Tampa Bay in 2018, but then turned around and tried to stick with each team — to the point where he famously contemplated retirement two years ago before going one to Milwaukee.
Becoming a rock-solid role player for a first-place team in 2025 already felt like a major success, and then Bauers matched it immensely this season: His 143 wRC+ tied for seventh among hitters and tops among World Series participants (yes, even a tick above Caminero). Once he’s pursued a championship with the Brewers, Bauers will hit the open market as one of the more ambitious bats in the free agent fleet.
Changemakers: Rays RHP Nick Martinez & Brewers RHP Logan Henderson
Henderson was in elementary school when Martinez was drafted by the Rangers in 2011, but the two right-handers should make their boards clean at the same time. Henderson, who will start Game 2 for Milwaukee, was drafted in the 2021 fourth round by the Brewers out of Texas junior college, and has had a healthy shot through the minors once. Martinez’s baseball journey from college shortstop at Fordham to World Series Game 1 starter took him across the globe for many years in Japan before returning to second-string status in the big leagues. He received his first career All-Star invite in 2016 at the age of 36.
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While “Fastball Freddy” and Miz are known for their special hitters, these two rely heavily on speed to shut down opposing hitters. Both Martinez and Henderson average only around 93 mph with their best fastballs. Those offerings are still quite effective thanks to Henderson’s low release height and Martinez’s three variations including the sinker and the dromant, but it’s the changeup that ties the arsenal together. Among starters, only Cristopher Sánchez (37%) had a higher changeup routine in the regular season than Henderson (35%), whose 83-mph fastball has some nasty horizontal movement. And at 78 mph on average, Martinez’s changeup (26% usage) is slower than any right-handed pitcher’s.
Jake Bauers, Drew Rasmussen, Garrett Mitchell and Chandler Simpson aren’t household names … but.
(Ethan Palowitz/Yahoo Sports)
Shutdown approaching: Rays RHP Bryan Baker & Brewers RHP Trevor Megill
Before this season, Baker looked like a fairly general right-handed reliever, with four saves to his name over 205 major league appearances and a 3.86 ERA. But the Rays clearly have something special about him since they acquired him from Baltimore at the 2025 trade deadline, as he posted a 1.44 ERA in 2026 and led the MLB with 41 saves. In Tampa, Baker flexed his changeup routine and rolled almost his entire slide, with fastball and fastball offerings to dominate the duo. It’s worth noting that his velocity dropped closer to 92 mph by the end of the ALCS; This product was produced for three days in a row to close the series. We’ll see how his workload affects his effectiveness in Milwaukee.
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Megill has always stood out because look at him well: he is listed at 6 foot 8, 253 pounds. He’s always been a big dude with a big fastball, but he’s honed his skills to become one of the more consistent closers in the league, striking out 81 saves over the past season. His attack plan is more direct, relying solely on two pitches — 65% 98-mph tops, 35% 88-mph curveballs — to overwhelm hitters.
Here are the closer lines, then:
Baker: 7 G, 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 5 SV
Megill: 5 G, 5.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 4 SV
The only question now is who will strike first?
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Fastest hitters: Rays LF Chandler Simpson & Brewers 3B David Hamilton
Statcast’s average sprint speed (feet per second), Simpson and Hamilton both rank in the 95th percentile, but still the impact these two have on the base course. Simpson and Hamilton line up at first and third, so that in the first inning at home, they can grind out hits and hate the infield while pounding the batter out of the batter’s box.
Simpson’s speed-based highlights have been the stuff of legends since he was in college, and such feats have continued in pro ball, as he racked up 198 stolen bases over two full seasons in the minor leagues before his MLB debut in 2025. He’s not quite as effective as a baseball player, as you might think, in catching steals in his first two seasons, but in glasses and headaches, but in glasses and headaches. He always attacks the defense, although he is the least raw in the league.
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Hamilton has stolen 85 bases over the past three seasons and has been caught just 17 times, which is 13th in the MLB, despite being a part-time player. And as he showed with his last-round blast off Edwin Diaz in Game 4, Hamilton can also be a threat with a swinging bat, doing more than just his wheel work.
slippery-fielding shortstops: Rays SS Taylor Walls & Brewers SS Cooper Pratt
These two terrific infielders don’t have the same style of defense, but they can both steal your glove. Walls is a master of the technical art, in a wide range of globes not only because of his speed and range, but also because of his forethought and global preparation, which always puts him in the right place to make plays.
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Pratt is more of a physical presence in the dirt, and as a 22-year-old rookie, he is more prone to mistakes in practice games. But he’s also more likely to produce jaw-dropping results, due to his arm strength and impressive flexibility and speed for a player of his size.
Whatever these two shortstops give you offensively — don’t count much on either one, as Wall has been one of the worst in the majors, while Pratt is still in his early days lending himself advantage against big league arms — it’s gravy. They just enjoy the show when they are stuck in the field.
Dynamic outfielders: Rays RF Victor Mesa Jr. & Brewers CF Garrett Mitchell
Mitchell was a first-round pick in Milwaukee in 2020 and has made his physical tools so great over the years that he has been hampered by repeated injuries and inconsistency. But this year, they finally all came together: After playing 141 games from 2022 to ’25, Mitchell played in 145 games in 2026 and made an impact in both seasons of the ball. All of his talent has been on display this season, as Mitchell snared a pair of two-game home runs against the Dodgers and made perhaps the best October catch to rob Manny Machado of a home run in the NLDS.
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Mesa, the son of legendary Cuban player and manager Victor Mesa, signed with the Marlins in 2018 alongside his brother Victor, who was far more hyped as a prospect. But it quickly became apparent that Mesa Jr. It was a significant departure from the big-league power that Miami realized in 2025. Then he was traded to Tampa Bay before the 2026 season because the Marlins didn’t question him as a no-doubt part of his future outfield plans. To be fair, it seemed like the depth of the Rays’ movement at the time of the trade, but this projection ended somewhat when he was called up from Triple-A in May.
He also has one of the best throwing arms of any outfielder in the majors, so it will be interesting to see if the Brewers’ baserunning offense hangs on at all with Meas in right field. He went even quieter in the ALCS (2-for-21 with two singles) after his big home run against the Yankees in the ALDS; The Rays will need their bat to heat up if they are to go big with the Brewers.
Bad southpaws: Rays LHP Cam Booser & Brewers LHP Aaron Ashby
Booser is the best story of this season. A minor leaguer with the Twins a decade ago, Booser was away from the game for nearly five years, working various jobs while battling addiction, before finding his way into pro ball and with the Red Sox in 2024. He became a force in the Tampa Bay bullpen and one of the best left-handed relievers around.
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Ashby graduated in 2018 from the same junior college in Missouri that later produced Misiorowski, and navigated a myriad of injuries en route to his healthiest season yet in 2026. Only Mason Miller (129) had more hitters than Ashby (112) among relievers in the regular season and the Brewers’ at-bats in the NLDS for Miller, while at Milwaukee in the NLDS.
Both Ashby and Booser have appeared in six games this season, but their performances have been starkly different: Ashby has thrown a remarkable 12 scoreless innings, while Booser has completed just 4, thanks to Kevin Cash’s coaching staff, which allowed him to come in, complete an inning and be done. That said, there’s a good chance Cash Booser will need more than a few pointers moving forward. On the flip side, can Ashby handle multi-inning pitches for the duration of the Fall Classic, or does it become too serious if the streak goes long?