The 2026 MLB season is inbound!

Let’s preview what lies ahead for the NL & AL Central divisions this season.

NL Central

Chicago Cubs

• Pitching Grade: A-
• Batting Grade: B+
• Vibes Grade: A
• Star to watch: Alex Bregman
• Non-star to watch: Edward Cabrera
• Intangible reason to watch: Anything Pete Crow-Armstrong says and does, good or bad, is entertaining

It would appear that the Cubs are finally starting to operate like the big-market team they are for the first time since 2016 after winning a playoff series, and winning baseball at Wrigley again is just plain exciting. The Cubs have had an identity crisis since breaking the curse and parting ways with the core, along with receiving criticism with such a small portion of their revenue they actually spend on their roster, but Craig Counsell getting it right in year two with the big names stepping up has made them now one of the deepest teams in baseball, ready to go for it.

The addition of Alex Bregman, the man lauded for his veteran leadership by everyone in Boston, sort of felt like destiny when he signed, and then the Bears came back and won a playoff game. His addition to the locker room, the trade for Edward Cabrera, and the signing of Shota Imanaga mitigate the loss of Kyle Tucker, who played out of sorts last season in a contract year. Nico Hoerner will be looking to do the complete reverse, taking only another leap in a contract year as one of the best defenders in the sport. Oh, yeah, and that Pete Crow-Armstrong guy is just 23 and wants to be the face of the sport.

Milwaukee Brewers

• Pitching Grade: B+
• Batting Grade: B+
• Vibes Grade: C-
• Star to watch: Jackson Chourio
• Non-star to watch: Brice Turang
• Intangible reason to watch: Are they going to do the Brewers thing again, where we doubt them for not having A-list names and then cruise as one of the best teams all regular season? (But how much does that lead to postseason success?)

You’re never supposed to doubt the Brewers. They sold off talent again to start last year, had the torpedo bat series loss to the Yankees, where we thought they were broken to start the year, and then they went out and ended up winning the most games in the entire league during the regular season.

You’re never supposed to doubt the Brewers, but they did what the Brewers did again: they sold off their ace, Freddy Peralta, for prospects. It’s also just getting more and more difficult to believe in their practice when they put together miraculous regular seasons year after year as a talent-developing factory, only for them to have nothing but first appearance exits every time since 2017. The reason for optimism is that Jackson Chourio was hurt last season and is a bona fide superstar, truly the missing centerpiece of the franchise that can get talent everywhere else. Who knows what’s in store for how they manage flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski getting a full season this time, but Brandon Woodruff is expected to come back to make up for the Peralta loss.

Also, this is the season that Brice Turang becomes a household name and could be the lightning to Chourio’s thunder. The question is not whether the Brewers will be competitive- it’s if the beat down of regular season success all being for nothing, combined with the Cubs making more purchases in the division, that it finally catches up to them.

Cincinnati Reds

• Pitching Grade: B+
• Batting Grade: B-
• Vibes Grade: B
• Star to watch: Elly De La Cruz
• Non-star to watch: Rhett Lowder
• Intangible reason to watch: They’ve got one of the best pitching staffs in the league, but also play in Great American SMALLpark. Something’s gotta give!

The Reds may be the most fascinating paradox in baseball. After stealing the wild card from the melted down Mets to… make an appearance against the Dodgers, they doubled down on pitching, but played in a ballpark that you probably could hit a home run in with your off-hand. Hunter Greene, unfortunately, will start the season out until July, but that position of strength will now likely give Chase Burns the chance to get valuable innings as well as get a good look at Rhett Lowder.

If the Reds keep the ball in the park, it all comes down to whether or not Elly De La Cruz can take advantage of that offensively.

The behemoth with that much athleticism should be able to hit more homers than he did last year, the most on the team with just 22. Adding Eugenio Suarez after he hit 49 last year certainly helps for the reunion, but is it enough for them to feasibly be more than just another Wild Card contending team that inevitably has a similar outing as the one last year against the Dodgers is the question.

Pittsburgh Pirates

• Pitching Grade: A-
• Batting Grade: B-
• Vibes Grade: C
• Star to watch: Paul Skenes
• Non-star to watch: Konnor Griffin
• Intangible reason to watch: What are the ripple effects going to be if Paul Skenes gets no run support again?

You know what everyone in the Steel City has wanted to do for as long as we can remember? Get Pirates owner Bob Nutting out. They’d been refusing to spend even before they had Paul Skenes, so when you have the NL Cy Young winner and one of the best young and up-and-coming rotations in all of baseball with Mitch Keller and Jared Jones rehabbing, ALL eyes are on what you can do to man up, open up your wallets, and build a roster that can give run support so as not to ruin a potentially generational pitcher’s career.

This was the offseason of making PR statements saying, “Hey, we at least made an offer!” on guys like Kyle Schwarber and Josh Naylor. They did the whole “we at least put forth the effort” posturing in the midst of also not bringing back a guy who should get a statue in Andrew McCutchen, but at least will have some new offensive output from Ryan O’Hearn, Brandon Lowe, and Marcell Ozuna.

The big question is not if Konnor Griffin will be the offensive star, but when, considering they’re starting him in the minors. The Pirates offensively are going to be the “we’ll believe it when we’ll see it” camp because of the malpractice year after year, but it would be nice to finally see meaningful baseball in PNC for the first time since 2015.

St. Louis Cardinals

• Pitching Grade: D
• Batting Grade: C+
• Vibes Grade: D-
• Star to watch: Masyn Winn
• Non-star to watch: Ivan Herrera
• Intangible reason to watch: Busch Stadium sure looks nice

The greatest fans in baseball are going to have to wait on Chaim Bloom to get his guys. After officially tearing down the run where they were going for it with Goldschmidt and Arenado as the top-two NL MVP award getters, the most expensive player on the roster is now Dustin May. That’s not to say there isn’t young talent on the team. Masyn Winn could very well be the shortstop of the future, Ivan Herrera looked like one of the best offensive catchers in the game, and JJ Wetherholdt will finally get the call-up to round out a fantastic young infield.

The Oli Marmol situation is also an oddity in that everyone keeps thinking he could be on the hot seat, yet he gets an extension and a vote of confidence. Marmol will have to prove he can build up a roster from the ground up with how bare it’s been stripped down, but this is also the franchise that calmly made the World Series just AFTER Albert Pujols left in free agency way back when.

AL Central

Detroit Tigers

• Pitching Grade: A
• Batting Grade: B
• Vibes Grade: C-
• Star to watch: Riley Greene
• Non-star to watch: Kevin McGonigle
• Intangible reason to watch: Tarik Skubal’s press conferences all year in his contract year are going to be very telling!

Is this the last hurrah for this iteration of the Tigers after the biggest soap opera standoff of the offseason: Tarik Skubal’s arbitration case? No, they didn’t give him the massive extension that he and Scott Boras are asking for. However, they are at least still telling Skubal they’re in it to win it with him this year by bringing in Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander and bringing the gang back together for another year everywhere else. The Tigers were the best team in baseball last season before melting down to concede the division to the Guardians, but the thing about it is that the entire lineup is under 30, the bullpen and pitching staff had historically bad pitching and injury luck in the back half, and Kevin McGonigle is looking like he’s going to make his debut as an added offensive superstar that’s just 21.

Last year was the year when they were young and playing with house money. Still, after taking postseason lumps and the pressure to win now with the best pitcher in the sport, the potential maturity of the lineup makes them the favorite in the division, unless the drama of the Skubal standoff creates unnecessary adversity.

Kansas City Royals

• Pitching Grade: B+
• Batting Grade: A-
• Vibes Grade: A
• Star to watch: Bobby Witt Jr.
• Non-star to watch: Jac Caglianone
• Intangible reason to watch: From a personality standpoint, maybe the happiest-go-luckiest young guys who could keep their positivity high enough for a playoff berth?

The Royals may be the most positive team in baseball despite going 82-80 last year? They’ve got their superstar Bobby Witt Jr. locked up for essentially his career already, Vinnie Pasquantino just won over the entire world’s heart in the WBC, Maikel Garcia is a superstar in the making, and they just all look like they play with the most joy possible.

Joy doesn’t always translate to success and they battled injuries with Vinnie and ace Cole Ragans, and Jac Caglianone got the call up and took his rookie lumps very early, but there’s a strong chance that this Royals team doesn’t have the most games in which they scored 1 run or less this year, and that alone is enough for them to take a big step forward this year.

Cleveland Guardians

• Pitching Grade: A
• Batting Grade: C+
• Vibes Grade: C
• Star to watch: Jose Ramirez (or now bulked up Kyle Manzardo!)
• Non-star to watch: CJ Kayfus
• Intangible reason to watch: There will be more pitchers that step up from their factory despite the Emmanuel Clase situation.

Chicago White Sox

• Pitching Grade: C-
• Batting Grade: B
• Vibes Grade: B+
• Star to watch: Colson Montgomery
• Non-star to watch: Munetaka Murakami
• Intangible reason to watch: Will the Pope make an appearance at a game? Better yet: WILL THE POPE BLESS THE TEAM?

There was nowhere to go but upwards for the Chicago White Sox after the historically embarrassing 121-loss season, and they were NOT the worst team in the league last year! There were at least some bright spots as the ultimate tank job has started to pave the way for them to make some signings this offseason. The pitching is going to need some work aside from Shane Smith being a bright spot, but the lineup they overhauled via trades is all paving the way for the 8th-youngest team in baseball (Andrew Benintendi is the old man!) to take over. They finally took their lumps in a Luis Robert Jr. trade for Luisangel Acuna, possibly just because his name is Acuna and his brother is nice. They signed Munetaka Murakami, the home-run-slugging big boy from Japan, who proved they’re both willing to spend and to try this year! On top of that, last year featured a season where Colson Montgomery hit 18 homers in 37 games- the young talent is in there.

The new Pope is a White Sox fan. The Bears won a playoff game. The White Sox are spending. What is in store for this team? Probably more than 60 wins! And that’s something!

Minnesota Twins

• Pitching Grade: C
• Batting Grade: C-
• Vibes Grade: F
• Star to watch: Byron Buxton
• Non-star to watch: Luke Keaschall
• Intangible reason to watch: You ALWAYS root for Byron Buxton’s health with how exciting he is.

The Minnesota Twins had probably the most depressing trade deadline of anyone in 2025 with their fire sale after starting 51-57 and dumping Carlos Correa, Jhoan Duran, and a grand total of 10 players. For some reason, they DID decide to keep the two players who would arguably have gotten them the most in return: Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton. Still, the direction of this team right now is just odd, firing Rocco Baldelli only to replace him with Derek Shelton, a guy who was just fired by the Pirates in 2025. The aura in Minnesota just seems to be spiraling further and further away from the 2023 ALDS appearance, with Pablo Lopez needing Tommy John surgery, and in the one season when Royce Lewis was healthy last year, he lost all the magic he had as the former top prospect and has still struggled this spring.

This year is going to be a season of evaluating the prospects and young pieces you cleared the cupboard for, seeing who is salvageable, and possibly getting a right price for Joe Ryan and Buxton if the timing is right and they decide it’s time to part ways.