7 of MLB's Longest World Series Title Droughts Belong to 2025 Playoff Teams

Chances are good that, at the end of the 2025 MLB postseason, a team that hasn’t won a championship for a very long time is going to hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy. That’s because, of the 14 teams that haven’t won a World Series for at least 25 years now, seven of them are in this one postseason.

Let’s look at every team in MLB that has gone at least 25 years without a championship, with the 2025 season included for those that have already been eliminated from ending their drought this October.

The last time that the Guardians were World Series champions was 1948. The last-living player from that team, Eddie Robinson, passed away in 2021. The 1948 season was so long ago that the team they defeated, the Braves, were still playing in Boston. 

Cleveland has certainly had chances since 1948 to become champs once more — they lost the 1954 World Series to the New York Giants, the ‘95 Fall Classic to the Braves, ‘97’s to the Marlins and 2016’s to the Cubs, snapping Chicago’s own 107-year title drought. Cleveland also lost in the ALCS in 1998, 2007 and 2024. There have been some great teams in Cleveland in the last 30-plus years, but to this point, none of them have come away with a championship.

The Jose Ramirez-led 2025 edition of the team will get a chance to end this drought, though, as they won the AL Central and will take on the rival Detroit Tigers in the AL Wild Card Series.

Christian Yelich helped power the Brewers to the best record in MLB in 2025. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)

The Brewers have never won a World Series. Introduced in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots, the team moved to Milwaukee and was renamed in 1970. They first made the postseason in 1981, then lost in the World Series in ‘82. While they have made