The MLB field has dwindled to eight teams left competing for a title, and one man among them will never have to buy a beer in his baseball town again. Some years it’s a superstar everyone saw coming; other years it’s an overlooked player who transforms into a true modern folk hero.
That’s the beauty, and absurdity, of trying to pick a World Series MVP before the Division Series begin on Saturday—at this point, you just don’t know who could end up on top of the heap. Steve Pearce won it for Boston in 2018. David Eckstein won it for St. Louis in 2006. David Freese pulled off a miracle in October 2011.
So let’s embrace the foolishness. Below are potential World Series MVPs, grouped by the kind of October takeover they could deliver. We move from the obvious stars toward the increasingly unlikely heroes. There are sluggers capable of wrecking a series with a few thundering swings, pitchers prepared to empty the tank, and players with redemption on their minds.
And finally, somewhere near the bottom might be the guy who spends his acceptance speech wondering, “How the hell did I get here?” while millions of Americans ask the same question.
Shohei Ohtani
The Apex Superstars
Shohei Ohtani, Designated Hitter, Los Angeles Dodgers
It’s been a down year by Ohtani’s preposterously high standards. He won’t win NL MVP. He won’t be pitching in October. And it will be tough to outdo the greatest individual performance in baseball history that he pulled off in the last playoffs. Ohtani has battled through multiple injuries throughout the second half of the season and had an OPS below .900 for the year. Yet he remains the best player on the sport’s best team. He’s the game’s most magnetic player, and we’ll be reminded of that for the entirety of the Dodgers run.
Jacob Misiorowski, Pitcher, Milwaukee Brewers
Just as we all expected, the best pitcher in baseball this season was an NL Central ace who had a collegiate affiliation with LSU. However, that pitcher was not Paul Skenes. It was Jacob Misiorowski.
He already put himself on the map last October, but now his starts feel like appointment viewing. Given the Brewers’ lack of starter depth right now, the Miz might have to pull a 2025 Yoshinobu Yamamoto to get them to win the World Series.
Fernando Tatis Jr., Right Fielder, San Diego Padres
The players who have all five tools and showcase them with the ease and aura of Fernando Tatis Jr. can be counted on one hand. The Padres are the “hot team that no one wants to play,” and Tatis is a major reason why. He was the second-best position player in baseball after May 1.
His leadoff home run on the first pitch of the wild-card series against Chicago on Tuesday shook all of the Gaslamp. His score from first on a stolen base attempt later that night punctuated a dominant night of playoff baseball for San Diego. He moves differently than basically everyone left in the playoffs.
Cam Schlittler, Pitcher, New York Yankees
Cam Schlittler is about to win the AL Cy Young in his second season in the big leagues. After overwhelming the Red Sox on Tuesday night, Schlittler has 24 strikeouts, one walk, and two earned runs across 20.2 innings in his first three playoff starts. He’s the poster child for the only rotation that has a chance to match the Dodgers arm for arm across an entire seven-game series.
Ronald Acuña Jr., Right Fielder, Atlanta Braves
Acuña is technically a World Series champion, but he missed those 2021 playoffs with a torn ACL and wasn’t able to contribute to Atlanta’s postseason. The Braves’ best player is still looking for his signature playoff moment. Atlanta slugged its way past Philly for its first playoff series win since that 2021 title, and now the Braves will have to run the gauntlet, starting with the Dodgers on Saturday.
Gavin Sheets
Baseball Go Boom
Junior Caminero, Third Baseman, Tampa Bay Rays
Caminero might have the angriest swing in all of baseball. His elite bat speed helps him hit baseballs as hard and far as any hitter in the sport. The Rays’ best path to beating the Yankees and winning the franchise’s first World Series title will involve him hitting the seams off baseballs and making up for the Rays’ otherwise lacking power with his thunderous bat.
Gavin Sheets, Designated Hitter, San Diego Padres
“Holy Sheets” is the most iconic on-field moment from the wild-card series. Petco Park is a cauldron of baseball energy in October, and Sheets hit a two-run homer in Game 2 that sounded like an exploding stick of dynamite as it left his bat. The Padres’ previous October kryptonite was their inability to hit the ball out of the park. Sheets will be trying to ensure that’s not a problem for them in 2026.
Munetaka Murakami, First Baseman, Chicago White Sox
Murakami’s jovial personality and affinity for partying have made him the breakout media star of the first round of the playoffs. But don’t let his friendly persona fool you into thinking that he’s not one of the league’s most fearsome boppers. Murakami hit 35 homers in 127 games this year. The White Sox pitching will have issues against better October lineups, so they’ll be relying on Murakami to blast balls over the fence.
Ben Rice, Designated Hitter, New York Yankees
More than maybe any other city, New York has a way of turning a few swings in October into a lifetime of fame. And when the Yankees’ usual centerpiece, Aaron Judge, is injured, Rice becomes the best hitter in the lineup. Rice smashed the Red Sox in the wild-card series, has the plate discipline and power to be the toughest out in their lineup, and will become the focal point of every future opponent’s pitching plan.
Jake Bauers, First Baseman, Milwaukee Brewers
Every postseason needs a hero who makes you ask, “Wait, that guy?” Bauers fits perfectly into the self-deprecating “Average Joes” moniker that’s become the calling card of Pat Murphy and the Brewers. Milwaukee may not have leaguewide stars, but Jake “Rake” Bauers could steal a World Series MVP. And his hitting is essential for Milwaukee’s lineup, which can experience power outages from time to time.
Chris Sale
The “Whatever It Takes” Arms
Mason Miller, Pitcher, San Diego Padres
The best one-inning run preventer on the planet has the entrance music and the yearlong narrative arc to back him up. San Diego will probably ask him to get even more than three outs at a time at some point. While it’s hard to imagine a reliever winning this award, he’s one of two who has a real chance to pull it off in the right circumstances. He struck out nearly half the batters he faced and pitched to a 1.67 ERA in the regular season.
Chris Sale, Pitcher, Atlanta Braves
Sale tossed nearly seven elite innings against the Phillies on Tuesday and then pitched the final 1.1 innings on Thursday night to seal Atlanta’s spot in the NLDS. The Braves load managed their ace by giving him extra rest throughout the season, and now it looks like he’s ready to go full 2014 Madison Bumgarner to help the Braves cover for their general lack of pitching depth. The Braves’ top lefty, Dylan Lee, struggled down the stretch, and the competitive Sale will desperately want more opportunities to pitch out of the bullpen when possible.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers
As the reigning World Series MVP, Yamamoto deserves an honorary placeholder in this tier. There are four players who have won the award twice, and two of them were pitchers: Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson. We know that Yamamoto will pitch out of the bullpen if needed, as he showed in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series.
Anthony Volpe
The Redemption-Arc Heroes
Jo Adell, Outfielder, Guardians
There’s a special kind of satisfaction in watching a former top prospect become the player everyone imagined he could be. Adell could deliver that with a few enormous home run swings. It’s what Cleveland took a flier on him to do. The talent has always made him worth dreaming about. If he’s on, Adell could produce a postseason run like Jorge Soler did in 2021, when he won World Series MVP with Atlanta. And he’d have the chance to bookend his season with another iconic performance, to go with his three-home-run-robbery night in April.
Kyle Tucker, Right Fielder, Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers paid for a superstar and spent much of the summer waiting for him to arrive. October offers Tucker an opportunity to change his relationship with the fan base and erase everything that happened during a middling regular season. Nobody will care about the disappointing stretches if he delivers the swings that clinch a three-peat. For a player seeking redemption, it helps to have as much talent as Tucker showed during his remarkably consistent career in Houston.
Anthony Volpe, Shortstop, New York Yankees
Few players in all of baseball have led to more sports talk radio segments than Volpe. He’s been one of the most disappointing prospects in recent memory, and it’s hard to win the World Series MVP as a platoon bat. But if the World Series ends up as Yankees-Dodgers, the Dodgers will start a bunch of lefties, and Volpe could earn himself a real redemption chance.
The hometown kid becoming an October hero to end the Yankees’ World Series drought remains an irresistible story, even after all the detours.
Parker Messick
The Not Yet National Names
Chandler Simpson, Left Fielder, Tampa Bay Rays
In a postseason full of guys trying to hit baseballs into another ZIP code, Simpson could win games by barely getting one out of the infield. He nearly won the American League batting title, and an October takeover built around contact and stolen bases would be a delightful change of pace.
Parker Messick, Pitcher, Cleveland Guardians
Messick is going to finish in the top five for both AL Rookie of the Year and AL Cy Young, even though he’s not going to win either award. Cleveland seems to manufacture pitchers like Messick almost every year. His changeup keeps hitters off-balance at all times. And once he announces himself on the national stage in the ALDS, he’ll be a known difference maker as Cleveland’s best and most important playoff pitcher.
Sean Burke
The October Origin Stories
Sean Burke, Pitcher, Chicago White Sox
A White Sox championship would already require one of the most improbable October stories imaginable. Oddsmakers have them as the longest shot to win it all. But Sean Burke has already set the stage and reminded us all of just how locked in he is with his viral quote prior to the Game 2 win against the Astros:
“This is my life. No family, no girl, no kids. This is all I do.”
Burke later clarified he does indeed have family, but that quote is what I want to hear from the guy who is about to be asked to shoulder the weight of an entire pitching staff in the most stressful period of the season.
Burke probably won’t be the World Series MVP, but imagine the viral quote cards if he was.
Josue De Paula, Designated Hitter, Los Angeles Dodgers
As if the Dodgers needed more help, their lineup full of baseball superstars has a new understudy. And he’s one of the top prospects in all of baseball. De Paula’s advanced left-handed bat makes him a candidate for an October breakout. Imagine your pitching staff spending a whole series navigating the Dodgers’ established stars, only to have the 21-year-old kid deliver the swing that sends you home. The Dodgers aren’t the 2019 Nationals, but this whole playoff situation is very Juan Soto–ian, even if De Paula’s path to playing time this month may be murky.
