Teams that have never won a World Series

At the start of every season, each MLB club begins its climb toward a World Series title. However, five teams have yet to reach the mountaintop. The Brewers and Padres each had an opportunity to claim their first championship in 2024, but neither could finish the job in the postseason; Milwaukee was beaten by the Mets in the NL Wild Card Series, and San Diego lost to the Dodgers in the NL Division Series.

Here is a look at the teams whose fans are still waiting to celebrate, in order of how long each has been in its current home market.

Rays (1998)
The Rays don't have a lengthy history like some of the other clubs on this list, although they have reached the World Series twice and made their fifth straight playoff appearance in 2023. They won their first AL pennant in 2008 before bowing out to the Phillies in a five-game World Series. Tampa Bay claimed its second pennant in '20, but lost in six games against the Dodgers.

Rockies (1993)
The Rockies clinched consecutive postseason berths for the first time in franchise history in 2017 and '18, but they didn't win a single playoff game in either run. In fact, over their three playoff appearances (they also reached in '09 as the National League Wild Card) since reaching the World Series in the well-revered "Rocktober" of '07, Colorado has only one won postseason contest since its NL-pennant clinching win against Arizona; the Rox were swept by the Red Sox in that year's World Series. The Rockies have never won the NL West, though they did force a Game 163 against the Dodgers in '18 for the right to win what would've been their first division title.

Mariners (1977)
The Mariners have not only never appeared in a World Series, but they were riding the longest playoff drought in any of the four major pro sports, at 20 seasons, before snapping that in 2022. Seattle has had some of the game's biggest superstars through the years -- Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, Ichiro Suzuki and many more -- but it has also had some of the postseason's biggest disappointments, most notably in 2001, when the Mariners set an MLB record with 116 wins (a feat some suggest may never been matched), yet lost to the Yankees in the ALCS in just five games.

Brewers (1970)
The Brew Crew has made it to only one World Series -- a memorable seven-game loss to the Cardinals in 1982 with the "Harvey's Wallbangers" team -- and that was when they were in the AL. They nearly made it back in 2018, taking the Dodgers all the way to Game 7 of the NL Championship Series. Milwaukee made its sixth postseason trip over a seven-year span in 2024.

• Longest stretches between WS appearances

Padres (1969)
The Friars have reached the World Series twice, but both times they ran up against buzzsaws. The first was a dominant Tigers team that beat Tony Gwynn and Steve Garvey's Padres, 4-1, in the 1984 World Series, and the second was a sweep at the hands of the incredible '98 Yankees, who won 114 games in the regular season and are considered among a handful of teams as the greatest of all-time.