In the context of Major League Baseball, San Diego and Milwaukee are extremely similar. The Padres reside in the league’s 5th-smallest market. The Brewers are in the 2nd-smallest. Both teams sit in the shadow of mega-brands with global appeal just two hours away. Over the last half decade both have found a way to be legitimate, consistent title contenders. That, however, is where the franchises diverge. “You have two teams that have gone about it a different way,” says A.J. Preller, Padres President of Baseball Operations. “Both are, you know, considered, probably smaller market teams, or at least historically have been considered that. But both teams have found a way, to year in and year out, be successful.” As with most conversations about baseball success, we’re talking about cash. This year the Padres payroll is $80 million higher than the Brewers. Yet Milwaukee knocked them out, then swept through the free spending Dodgers to reach the World Series. They didn’t do it with witchcraft or some super-secret formula. They simply reinvented Moneyball. The book that became an Oscar-nominated movie outlines how, as the general manager of the low-budget Oakland Athletics, San Diego native Billy Beane found underutilized assets to compete for titles while spending fractions of what other teams spent. 25 years ago, it was “guys who get on base.” The modern version is “guys who hit singles.” “The one thing that they do is they control the zone,” says Padres manager Craig Stammen, who got a close look at the strategy in a four-game National League Division Series loss. “They found that with their personnel, the best way to score runs is to be super patient at the plate, be very disciplined, get them on base and then use their speed to get around the bases rather than, you know, try for the home run.” MLB’s Statcast era is all about exit velocities and launch angles, putting a premium on power, so money has been flowing to guys who hit the ball out of the park. In 2026 there are 59 position players around the league who have signed contracts worth at least $100 million. Forty of them have multiple 30-home run seasons on their resume. Another five are players who signed before they turned 23 years old because they’ve shown power potential. The Padres have handed out five of those contracts (Manny Machaco twice, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, and Jackson Merrill). The Brewers, just one (Christian Yelich). In 2026, Milwaukee hit the second-fewest home runs in the game yet scored the second-most runs. How, you might ask? Here’s where we find the undervalued asset. The Brewers led the world in base hits and team batting average. They collected a bunch of overlooked, high-contact (and lower-cost) bats to create a lineup that just keeps slapping singles around the yard, frustrating pitchers while scoring one run at a time. It’s death by paper cuts, and it’s put them four wins away from their first championship. Even the Padres had to tip their caps to the game plan that ended their season. “That’s the beauty of baseball,” says Stammen. “There’s different ways to win games and every team has got to figure out, with who they have on the team, what’s our best way to win?” “It’s going to be a challenge over the next 12 months to get better and put ourselves in a spot where we’re hosting those games at Petco to start off,” says Preller. “Hopefully we’re on the winning side of another playoff series against an organization like that.” Now, will the Friars try to adopt some of those tactics this offseason? That’s a conversation for a different day. But we probably wouldn’t mind seeing Luis Arraez back in San Diego uniform. ...read more read less