When the World Series opens Friday night at American Family Field, the Brewers will face two starting pitchers they used to employ. Drew Rasmussen and Freddy Peralta, both traded away by Milwaukee, are now co-aces of the Tampa Bay Rays, and the rematch is the most delicious subplot of this Fall Classic.
Game 1 sets the tone: Jacob Misiorowski, the 105 mph rookie who should win the National League Cy Young, against Rasmussen, an American League Cy Young finalist. It is the battle of baseball’s best young arms, and for Milwaukee fans, a reunion with a complicated history.
The trades that made Tampa’s rotation
Rasmussen was a sixth-round pick out of Oregon State who posted a 5.01 ERA in 32.1 innings for Milwaukee before the Brewers dealt him to the Rays in May 2021 for shortstop Willy Adames. The trade made sense at the time, Adames went on to put up 14.0 bWAR in 548 games with 107 home runs, but Rasmussen’s 2025 breakout and extension turned him into the ace Milwaukee never got to keep. Adames himself walked after 2024, signing a $182 million deal with the Giants.
Peralta’s path was messier. Milwaukee sent him to the Mets in the offseason for prospects Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams, a deal that panned out for neither side. Peralta struggled in the first half, then landed in Tampa at the deadline and became a co-ace. The two right-handers started five of the Rays’ seven postseason wins. When Peralta faced his old club in July, still with the Mets, he was pounded for seven earned runs over 5 1/3 innings.
Revenge everywhere you look
The storyline extends beyond the mound. Jake Bauers came to Tampa via the Padres in the December 2014 Wil Myers trade, debuted in 2018, and was shipped to Cleveland in the three-team deal that brought back Yandy Diaz. He is now a Brewers NLCS hero. Even Jake Woodford, a winner either way, spent his nomadic 2026 with both clubs.
The series itself is a small-market showcase: a 103-win team against a 98-win team, the Brewers sweeping the Dodgers despite a payroll gap near 3:1, the Rays doing the same to the Yankees. The Brewers are in the Fall Classic for the first World Series trip since 1982, and the Division Series check already hinted at how quickly October fortunes change. SI’s matchup takeaways call the traded-pitcher subplot the one other organizations will study. With a labor dispute likely to dominate the offseason, this series may be the last pure baseball argument for a while.
