The MLB playoffs tend to be more random than every other major professional sport in North America. But they're not as random as Ben Verlander projected the 2026 MLB postseason to be before it started. Verlander has to live down some of the horrible predictions he made. In fact, almost nothing of what he predicted came to pass.
Verlander predicted that the Philadelphia Phillies will win the World Series. The Phillies didn't even make it past the Wild Card round. He predicted that the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers will both bow out of the postseason in the NLDS. Both are now in the NLCS.
On the other side of the bracket, Verlander did predict correctly that the New York Yankees will advance to the ALDS. But that's where he stops being right. He believed that the Yankees would make it all the way to the World Series. The Tampa Bay Rays would go on to sweep them. Moreover, he thought that the Houston Astros will make it all the way to the ALCS. They didn't even win one game in the Wild Card round.
On Friday night, he tried to explain what he ended up calling his “imperfect bracket”.
“A little contrarian, having the six-seed Phillies (win it all). This is before they kinda faltered down the stretch,” Verlander said on MLB Now. “A little bit of a contrarian pick that backfired with the way the pitching had to go. One thing I have learned here, is when a team shows you who they are over the course of 162 games, believe them.”
Article Continues Below.@BenVerlander talks about his "imperfect" Postseason bracket 😅 https://t.co/BTIDDYNPZ7 pic.twitter.com/PXlmUylMWl
— MLB Now (@MLBNow) October 9, 2026
It's not out of the realm of possibility for a lower-seeded team like the Phillies, which had to win their final regular-season game just to seal their playoff spot, to make a Cinderella run. But the fact that Verlander whiffed on all but one pick is horrific, and is something he will have a hard time living down, regardless of whatever justifications he conjures up.