The 2024 World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers has landed at an awkward moment for Major League Baseball owners and Rob Manfred, who plan to initiate a lockout starting December 1 to force a salary cap on players. For years, league leadership has attempted to pitch a payroll ceiling to fans as a parity-enhancing gift that would curb the spending power of wealthier franchises. Yet that narrative hit a roadblock when the Rays, operating with the third-lowest payroll among the 30 MLB organizations, reached the Fall Classic against a Brewers club ranked 19th in team spending.
Parity in the Major Leagues
The postseason matchup highlights a trend across North American sports. Since 2015, 16 different MLB franchises have reached the World Series, surpassing the 14 clubs that reached the finals in the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association over the same span. Dans la NFL, seulement 11 équipes différentes ont pris part au Super Bowl durant cette période, tandis que la NFL et la LNH comptent 32 équipes chacune, et la NBA en compte 30. While league executives argue for the end of the free-market system by pointing to models in the NFL, NBA, and NHL, the Fall Classic field undercuts the urgency of their economic arguments.
Small-Ball Tactics Replace Power Hitting
On the diamond, the series breaks from recent seasons defined by home-run reliance. Last year, the Los Angeles Dodgers recorded the second-highest regular-season home run total in the majors, while the New York Yankees and Dodgers ranked first and third in long balls during the 2024 campaign. By contrast, the Brewers finished this season with 832 runs—the second-most in MLB—despite hitting just 154 home runs, which ranked 28th overall. The Rays produced 736 runs (12th in the majors) with 169 home runs (22nd). Managers Pat Murphy of Milwaukee and Kevin Cash of Tampa Bay have relied on aggressive base running, stolen bases, and sacrifice bunts to manufacture runs, creating a style of play distinct from standard modern slugging.
Jacob Misiorowski Sets World Series Velocity Record
The series also showcases Milwaukee starting pitcher Jacob Misiorowski, a 24-year-old right-hander whose velocity has rewritten radar gun records. During his first World Series appearance, the 6-foot-7 pitcher opened the game with a 103.5 mph fastball, establishing a record in the history of the World Series. Over that outing, he threw 37 pitches at or above 100 mph out of 78 total deliveries. Across the majors, the frequency of triple-digit fastballs has climbed sharply, rising from 214 tracked pitches in 2008 to 1,948 in 2016, 3,880 in 2023, and 5,298 during the recent season. Misiorowski alone accounted for 1,115 of those pitches—roughly 21 percent of the major league total—and recorded the 27 performances with the highest number of 100 mph pitches this year.
That workload carries physical risks for pitchers. Extreme velocity places strain on the ulnar collateral ligament, often leading to reconstructive surgery known as the Tommy John operation, in honor of the first pitcher to have undergone the intervention in 1974. Statistics compiled by Jon Roegele indicate that the percentage of major league pitchers who have undergone the procedure rose from 27.4 percent in 2016 to 40.9 percent this season.
Questions Surrounding the Future
With the Brewers holding a 2–0 lead in the series, observers face uncertainty regarding both Misiorowski’s pitching future and the sport’s labor stability ahead of the scheduled December 1 lockout deadline.
The Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays will face off in the 2026 World Series!This is the 4th time since 2000 where the World Series matchup will be between each league’s top seed 👀 pic.twitter.com/pKErHt8mfj
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