While the Chicago Cubs’ drought of over a century from 1908 to 2016 remains untouched, fans of several MLB teams have been in pain for decades.
The 2025 World Series is nearly here, as the star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers look to become the first team to repeat as champions since the New York Yankees won three titles in a row from 1998 to 2000.
While the Dodgers are aiming to win their third title this decade and cement this era of the franchise as a true dynasty, the Blue Jays will be looking to end a decades-long drought with their first title since 1993.
The championship drought was made famous by the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox, all of whom endured droughts of at least 85 years before winning a title. Although no current drought has reached that level, fans of a few teams are certainly getting nervous.
Much of the history of the World Series involves the globally recognizable Yankees, who have won an unmatched 27 championships while having appeared in the Fall Classic 41 times.
The next-closest team to the Yankees is the St. Louis Cardinals, who still have less than half of New York’s titles with 11 championships, the last of which was won in 2011.
As the 2025 World Series is now just days away, here’s a look at the five longest World Series championship droughts still going on as of this season:
5. Pittsburgh Pirates, 46 seasons (Last title: 1979)
One of the league’s most historic franchises, the Pirates have a rich heritage of all-time greats and some of the sport’s most iconic moments, many of which contributed to the team’s five World Series titles.
Since the “We Are Family” Pirates of 1979 came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Baltimore Orioles to win that year’s Fall Classic, the Bucs have been mired in decades of poor play and limited postseason success.
While the Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla led teams of the early 1990’s took Pittsburgh to the NLCS in three straight seasons, an all-time heartbreaker loss in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS kicked off an era of unmatched futility.
The Pirates failed to secure a winning season again until 2013, which began the club’s most recent era of success. While Pittsburgh made the postseason each year from 2013 to 2015, the Bucs were eliminated in the NL Wild Card Game in 2014 and 2015, while enduring a five-game loss in the 2013 NLDS at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals.
As it stands now, the Pirates have not made the postseason since 2015, and have failed to secure a winning season since their 82-79 campaign in 2018. Although Pittsburgh has the game’s best pitcher in a young Paul Skenes and a bright farm system, the league’s worst offense in 2025 has tons of room for improvement.
4. Seattle Mariners, 49 seasons (Never won title, first season in 1977)
In their 49th season of play, the Seattle Mariners fell short of ending a dubious opening half-century as a franchise with their first-ever World Series title.
The M’s were just a game away from their first-ever American League pennant, remaining the league’s only team that has never been to the World Series. While much of the team’s history has been shrouded in mediocrity, the Mariners have had two distinct eras of team success, the latter of which is currently ongoing.
The Mariners of the mid-1990’s to the early 2000’s featured many of the generation’s most iconic players, namely Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Ichiro Suzuki and Álex Rodríguez, while featuring the team’s first playoff runs.
While Seattle made ALCS appearances in 1995, 2000 and 2001, the last of which came after a record-setting 116-win season, the Mariners failed to win more than two games in any of the series’, keeping their pennant drought intact.
3. (Tie) San Diego Padres, 57 seasons (Never won title, first season in 1969)
Another team that has spent much of their time as a franchise in mediocrity, the Padres haven’t been quite as futile as the Mariners, making their way to the World Series twice over the team’s history.
San Diego made their first postseason run in 1984, which saw the Friars overcome a 2-0 NLCS deficit to the Chicago Cubs to win the series in five games, the last season in which the LCS was a best-of-five series.
The Padres went on to lose to the Detroit Tigers in five games in that year’s Fall Classic, and wouldn’t return for another 14 years when they got swept by the 114-win New York Yankees of 1998.
After mostly fruitless playoff runs in 1996, 2005 and 2006, the Padres have been in their most consistent era in franchise history yet during the 2020’s, a decade that has seen San Diego in the postseason four times.
The Padres got their deepest run of this era back in 2022, which saw San Diego pull off a shocking upset of the 111-win Dodgers in the NLDS before falling short to the Philadelphia Phillies in just five games in the NLCS.
While armed with plenty of stars and a stellar bullpen in 2025, San Diego was defeated by the Chicago Cubs in three games in the NL Wild Card Series, leaving the Dads still searching for that elusive first ring.
2. (Tie) Milwaukee Brewers, 57 seasons (Never won title, first season in 1969)
Similar to the Padres, the Brewers entered the 2025 postseason with high hopes of breaking a World Series drought that has spanned their entire franchise history, though those dreams were shattered by the Dodgers in a dominant four-game sweep in the NLCS.
The Brewers have also had very little October success in their history as a franchise, with much of it coming in recent years. In their first 29 seasons of play as an American League team, the Brewers made the postseason just twice – a loss in the 1981 ALDS to the New York Yankees and a heartbreaking seven-game defeat at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1982 World Series.
Since joining the National League in 1998, the Brewers have had some more October appearances, but not much else to show for it. This season marked the third NLCS appearance for the Brewers, with Milwaukee losing to St. Louis in six games in 2011 while falling in seven games to the Dodgers in 2018.
While the 2020’s have been an era of remarkable regular season success for Milwaukee, with playoff appearances in five of this decade’s six seasons and seven of the last eight seasons overall, the 2018 result remains a high watermark for the Brew Crew.
Although the Brewers may not be a star-studded team by any means, a strong base of young talent, excellent pitching staff and great farm system means you can never count them out on making it back for another run.
1. Cleveland Indians/Guardians, 77 seasons (Last title: 1948)
While the Brewers and Padres have certainly endured plenty of disappointment and pain over the years, it still pales in comparison to what has been felt in Cleveland over the past three quarters-of-a-century.
Cleveland’s drought seems to have had two distinct eras – the first era that featured decades of poor play with not even a thought of postseason success, and a second, more recent era that’s rife with heartbreak and disappointment.
After dispatching the Boston Braves in six games to win the 1948 World Series, a sweep at the hands of the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series served as the team’s lone postseason appearance until the club made history with a 100-44 record in the strike-shortened 1995 season.
That year kicked off this current era of heartbreak for Cleveland, which started with one of the sport’s most dominant offensive teams of all-time through the late 1990’s, suffering a crushing defeat after blowing a ninth inning lead in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series.
Cleveland would be in for another heartbreak 19 years later in what was perhaps the league’s highest stakes World Series ever, with the Chicago Cubs coming out on the right end of curse-breaking in the thrilling seven-game 2016 World Series.
Since that last heartbreak, Cleveland has remained remarkably competitive – despite not getting back to the Fall Classic, the Indians/Guardians have made the playoffs in six of the nine seasons since. Despite that, it’s been crushing blow after crushing blow.
After sustaining an extra-inning knockout punch from Juan Soto and the Yankees in the 2024 ALCS, the Guardians’ miraculous late-season comeback to win the AL Central in 2025 was deemed meaningless after they fell in three games to the same team they came back against in the Detroit Tigers in the AL Wild Card series.
The Guardians remain a well-managed team with a talented roster and elite farm system, but it’s hard to identify what exactly the franchise needs to finally make it over the hump.
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