MLB playoffs 2026: Ranking teams by World Series pressure - ESPN

Which playoff team most needs to win the World Series?

Repeating an exercise we do every fall when the MLB postseason is about to commence, we will try to determine how much immediate pressure each championship hopeful is facing.

What builds the pressure to win now? The answer is a little different for every team, and the weight of that pressure changes each passing season. Players age. Free agents leave and arrive. Playoff disappointments pile up. Playoff absences chafe.

Our Pressure Index formula considers the droughts, recent history and star pressure, along with age and pending free agents on the current roster. The original incarnation of the system was based on an old Bill James method for calculating «pressure points.» The basic version assumes that the more success a team has without winning it all, the more that team's pressure builds up. That pressure doesn't finally release until that team wins it all, resetting the valve, and everyone who follows that team can relax.

Only Los Angeles Dodgers fans currently know what that feels like.

On to the rankings!

Note: This includes every team with a nonzero chance at making the postseason, per our daily simulations.

Pressure Index: 109.7

Last title: Never

Last pennant: 1982

This is the Brewers' third straight year on top of these rankings, which makes sense. The Brewers have been perpetually successful over the past decade, but that first World Series title parade has still been elusive.

The pressure has only ratcheted up over the past year. After losing to the Dodgers in the NLCS in 2025, the Brewers have had the best regular season in franchise history.

The Brewers can finally release this pressure by finally, at last, overcoming the Dodgers.

Pressure Index: 108.3

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