\u2014 Codify (@CodifyBaseball) April 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n So, yeah, it’s safe to say that the NL Central is good this year. How good? Well, in MLB.com’s latest power rankings<\/a>, four of the five teams are inside the top 10, and every single one ranks in the top half of the league.<\/p>\n This division has often been the butt of many jokes from other fans. While the Brewers have owned it during the 2020s, having perennial bottom-feeders like the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates among the quintet tends to bring down the overall winning percentage.<\/p>\n But not this year. Save for maybe the St. Louis Cardinals, the NL Central should be a war all summer long<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earning their fourth straight division title will be no easy task for the Brewers in the newly-competitive NL Central<\/p>\n The Brewers’ run differential of +19 ranks fifth in the National League, but only third in the NL Central. The Pirates (+25) have ridden an elite pitching staff to one of the best marks in the league, while the Cubs (+34) have slugged their way to the third-best run differential in baseball.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most bizarre thing that’s happening right now: the Reds (-3) and Cardinals (-10), who are leading the pack, have negative run differentials. Both starts feel unsustainable — the Reds are somehow 10-0 in one-run games<\/a>, while the Cardinals are theoretically in the first part of a multi-stage rebuild — but that’s not stopping either of them from coming out of the gates hot in 2026.<\/p>\n Considering just how much young talent<\/a> is making its way to the big leagues in the NL Central, this doesn’t figure to be a one-off trend, either. This very well may be the best division in the league for the next half-decade.<\/p>\n If you’ve been paying close attention in recent years, you know how much of a split from the norm that is. You’d have to go back to 2015 — when the Cardinals (100 wins), Pirates (98), and Cubs (97) had the three highest win totals in the league — to find the last time multiple NL Central teams ranked among the top five in win percentage.<\/p>\n Those are the circumstances the Crew will have to overcome this year in order to secure their fifth division title in six seasons. Is anyone feeling daunted yet?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\"){kind=icon}
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a>