Between the NPB, KBO, CPBL, and MLB there are sixteen teams still competing for their respective league title in the playoffs. Some teams won their last championship as recently as 2023, while others have not won since the turn of the century.
In the MLB, the most recent champion of the four remaining teams are the Los Angeles Dodgers who won the World Series in 2020 during the Covid-19 shortened season. The second most recent title was the New York Yankees winning the World Series in 2009 over the Philadelphia Phillies. The two perennial powers are the only two MLB teams still in the postseason to have won the World Series in the 2000’s as the Mets last won the World Series in 1986 and the Cleveland Guardians haven’t won the World Series since 1948.
The Guardians are the least recent team among any of the sixteen baseball teams still competing for their league title to win a championship with a drought of 76 years. These storylines will make for two very interesting championship series matchups as the Dodgers are looking to prove their title in 2020 was not a fluke, the Yankees are looking to put the evil empire back on top, the Mets are attempting to perform a miracle once again, the the Guardians are looking to break the curse of Rocky Colavito.
In the CPBL, the Rakuten Monkeys are facing off against the Uni-Lions to see who will advance to the Taiwan Series and compete against the CTBC Brothers. The Brothers won the Taiwan Series in 2022, the Lions won it in 2020, and the Monkeys won the title in 2019. None of these three teams necessarily has a title drought, but the Brothers could tie the Lions for the most championship titles in league history if they were to win it all this year.
The KBO postseason still features the defending champion in the LG Twins. The Twins are currently facing the Samsung Lions in the KBO Playoff round where the winner will compete in the Korean Series against the Kia Tigers. The Tigers won the Korean Series in 2017, but the Lions have not won the Korean Series since 2014 making it a decade since they last held championship gold.
The Hanshin Tigers are the defending champions of the NPB and are still alive in the NPB postseason. They are currently down 1-0 in the Central League Climax Series against the Yokohama DeNA BayStars who haven’t held the Japan Series title in 26 years, last winning in 1998. That is the longest drought of any non-MLB team still alive in these playoffs. The Yomiuri Giants will face the winner of the Tigers and BayStars to try and claim their first Japan Series since 2012.
In the Pacific League of the NPB, the Chiba Lotte Marines lead the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters one game to none in the Pacific League Climax Series. The Fighters won the Japan Series most recently in 2016, while the Marines haven’t won it since 2010. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks await the winner of that series and they are looking to climb the mountaintop in Japan for the first time since 2020.
Follow all of the baseball postseasons here at World Baseball as it remains to be seen what droughts will be broken.
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 24: Juan Soto #22 of the New York Yankees stands at second base during the fifth inning with Francisco Lindor #12 of the New York Mets at Yankee Stadium on July 24, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
