{"id":794194,"date":"2026-09-01T19:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/794194\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T19:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:21:18","slug":"how-does-al-central-look-with-a-month-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/794194\/","title":{"rendered":"How does AL Central look with a month to go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees\u2019 top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup<\/a>. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the final month of the season just ahead, we\u2019re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who\u2019s surprising? Who\u2019s underwhelming? Who\u2019s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.<\/p>\n

Note: All records and stats are for games played as of Monday morning.<\/p>\n

First Place: Chicago White Sox (72-64)<\/p>\n

Top Position Player: Miguel Vargas (4.4 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Sean Burke (2.7 fWAR)<\/p>\n

This time last month, the baseball world was wondering if the summer fun happening on Chicago\u2019s South Side would eventually be too good to last. The answer as we wrap up the dog days and start to turn the season over to fall is the good times are rolling. The young White Sox team still sits in first place with the same three-game lead they had entering the month.<\/p>\n

The White Sox have a trio of sluggers who are leading the charge. Vargas, Munetaka Murakami, and Colson Montgomery all end the month on the cusp of 30 home runs. Former Savannah Banana Tristan Peters is playing great\u2014posting a .811 OPS and a .280 average on the season\u2014and was on a recent heater with homers in five consecutive games. As wild as it is to say this, even Randal Gruchuk is even getting in on the fun in the Windy City slashing .341\/.341\/.659 across 44 at-bats this past month.<\/p>\n

While the offense has been humming, the pitching staff is a different story. The team ranks 17th in ERA and 16th in strikeouts. Burke has been solid but had his toughest month of the season in August and Luis Castillo has struggled since coming over from Seattle at the Trade Deadline. The bullpen has been pretty solid and one bright spot is rookie Hagen Smith. The rookie out of Arkansas was the fifth overall pick of the 2024 MLB Draft, and he made his debut out of the \u2019pen on the 9th. Since then Smith has worked 11 innings and only given up a single earned run. Other relievers Sean Newcomb and Grant Taylor make this team one to watch in a short series as they have the bats and pen to give people fits.<\/p>\n

Second Place: Cleveland Guardians (69-68)<\/p>\n

Top Position Player: Brayan Rocchio (2.9 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Parker Messick (4.1 fWAR)<\/p>\n

Cleveland has done what they do: pitch well and hang around. Sitting a few games back but ever-lurking the Guardians end August sitting right around .500 and needing to make up a few games to take the division while also clinging to the last Wild Card slot in the American League.<\/p>\n

As has been the case all season and most of recent memory, the Guardians are struggling to score runs. The team ranks 28th in runs, 26th in batting average, and 30th in slugging. Chase DeLauter is the only hitter currently supporting an OPS above .800 and the team does not have a single hitter with more than 13 home runs on the season. Just to top it off, the team is also near the bottom in challenging balls and strikes as well. Sticking around .500 with this offense is something that is hard to fully understand or know how to appreciate.<\/p>\n

The reason the Guardians are .500 is their pitching. Highlighted by Messick, the lefty has a 2.46 ERA and 11-8 record. To further highlight how bad the offense is, on 8 separate occasions this year the team has lost a game with Messick giving up 2 or less runs. Gavin Williams leads the team with 204 strikeouts and 12 wins. In what can only be called luck the Guardians have only had to hand the ball to seven different starting pitchers this season. Messick, Williams, Tanner Bibee, and Joey Cantillo should all clear 30 starts. The pitching staff looks primed to give the city that rocks another run at the postseason.<\/p>\n

Third Place: Minnesota Twins (65-72)<\/p>\n

Top Position Player: Byron Buxton (2.6 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Joe Ryan (2.6 fWAR)<\/p>\n

They say it\u2019s not over until it\u2019s over; it\u2019s about over for the Twins. After not selling the Twins appeared to be attempting to make a run this year. However, since the deadline the team has struggled and cemented themselves in the middle of the central and slipping behind several slightly more average teams than themselves in the Wild Card standings.<\/p>\n

Minnesota got stuck in neutral in August at the plate. Byron Buxton went down and missed most of the month due to injury. Kody Clemens\u2019 hot streak from July dried up over August. The team tried to get something going calling up prospects Walker Jenkins and Kaelen Culpepper here at the end of the month but it might not be enough to get the needle moving back in their favor.<\/p>\n

While the hitting has been a let down one Twins pitcher had a month to remember. Zebby Matthews went 5\u20130 in August, with a tidy 2.90 ERA with 24 strikeouts over 31 innings. He capped off the month by carrying a perfect game into the 6th inning during a career-high 8.1 innings against the White Sox.<\/p>\n

Fourth Place: Detroit Tigers (63-73)<\/p>\n

Top Position Player: Dillon Dingler (5.0 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Casey Mize (3.0 fWAR) \u2014 traded to San Diego<\/p>\n

Oh Detroit, the true definition of a bad, good baseball team. Despite having a +65 run differential the Tigers sit 10 games under .500 entering the final month of the season. The Tigers waved the white flag at the deadline and have been treading water trying to make it to the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Detroit has the best run differential in the division at +65. The offense has been truly slightly below average. When you cruise up and down the stat lines it is easy to see that trend sprinkled throughout. Gleyber Torres and Kevin McGonigle were the team\u2019s two best hitters in August who had a relative sample size.<\/p>\n

Pitching in Detroit was really fun for a few weeks after the Trade Deadline as Troy Melton allowed a single run in 13 innings of work, Framber Valdez allowed just two runs in 14 innings, and Jackson Jobe threw five shutout innings in his season debut. However, since the deadline shock to the system, the staff has largely come back down to earth.<\/p>\n

Last Place: Kansas City Royals (62-76)<\/p>\n

Top Position Player: Bobby Witt Jr. (6.5 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Noah Cameron (2.7 fWAR)<\/p>\n

The only thing keeping the Tigers from rock bottom is the Royals. After coming into the season with playoff aspirations, Kansas City has suffered through a long hot summer. However, in true KC fashion the team has not quit on the season. The team had their first winning month in August going 16-11.<\/p>\n

Jac Caglianone hit six home runs and posted an OPS of 1.155 in August. Witt came back from injury and has continued being Bobby Witt. For a team that does not have a lot to play for the performances from the young Royals shows you why the team was so optimistic coming into the season.<\/p>\n

On the bump Michael Wacha has been the top arm for the Royals. Over the month he went 3-0 with a 2.51 ERA. Those brought his season numbers to 8-8 with a 3.32 ERA. In what quickly became a lost season you have to give it to the Royals for not packing it in and continuing to try and figure it out over the long season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees\u2019 top American League opponents are up to through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,4,3537,38398,396,2562],"class_list":["post-794194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-news","tag-rivalry-roundup","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117197411654653829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}