Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees’ top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the Trade Deadline behind us, we’re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who’s surprising? Who’s underwhelming? Who’s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.
We’ve reached the halfway point of September, several teams have now clinched postseason spots,
and several more will soon. With just a couple weeks of regular season baseball left, let’s check in on the NL Central.
Note: Records and stats are through games played on September 13th.
First Place: Milwaukee Brewers (93-57)
Top Position Player: Brice Turang (5.2 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Jacob Misiorowski (6.0 fWAR)
The Brewers won the race to be the first team to clinch a playoff spot over the weekend, and they’re now closing in on the NL Central title. They’re in a good position to finish with the best record in all of baseball as well.
They have an obvious absolute star in Misiorowski, but the most remarkable thing about the Brewers is that they’re just generally solid at almost every spot. Only one of their hitters with over 400 plate appearances has a wRC+ below the 100 average, and that’s Christian Yelich, who’s still in the 90s. You could’ve said similar things about last year’s Brewers, and they ended up getting shoved aside by the Dodgers in the NLCS, so we shall see.
Second Place: Chicago Cubs (83-67, 10 GB)
Top Position Player: Pete Crow-Armstrong (9.8 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Ben Brown (2.0 fWAR)
Going into Monday, the Cubs would have the third best record were they an AL team. Instead in the NL Central, they’re way off the pace of the division lead. As of now, the Cubs are safely in the NL playoffs, but not so safe that they can rest on their laurels. They lost five of their last seven games going into Monday, so they can’t afford to let that skid continue.
As a team, the Cubs are incredibly reliant on their hitting and defense, while pitching has been a massive struggle for them. The two facets of the team are on such opposite poles that they’re going to go down as one of the most unbalanced teams of all time. They have the possible NL MVP in Crow-Armstrong, but can he and the rest of the lineup overcome that pitching? It’ll be fascinating to see play out.
Third Place: Pittsburgh Pirates (75-75, 18 GB)
Top Position Player: Brandon Lowe (4.1 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Paul Skenes (4.8 fWAR)
It was wild to realize when putting together this post that the Pirates are basically in need of a miracle run to get into the playoffs in the NL, but they would be a game out of contention with that record in the AL.
It’s probably too late for Pittsburgh to rally and make the playoffs, but there are some things they can take away from this season. They’ve gotten some good seasons out of some of their young, up and coming players. One of those players is Skenes, who has only been merely “good” instead of “Cy Young Award great.” It’s somewhat worrying that he’s taken a step back, but if the Pirates figure that out, they could be a team that is intriguing next year.
Fourth Place: St. Louis Cardinals (74-76, 19 GB)
Top Position Player: JJ Weatherholt (4.4 fWAR)
Top Pitcher(s): Andre Pallante and Kyle Leahy (2.6 fWAR)
You can copy and paste some of what was said above about the Pirates and apply that to the Cardinals. Seven different St. Louis hitters aged 27 or younger have put up above average OPS+es on the season. Pallante and Michael McGreevy are both younger pitchers who’ve had pretty good years. They’re also gone nowhere in the standings, really.
Fifth Place: Cincinnati Reds (70-79, 22.5 GB)
Top Position Player: Elly De La Cruz (5.7 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Chase Burns (4.4 fWAR)
The good news for the Reds is that Burns looks like a possible stud worthy of the No. 2 overall pick that he was in 24. More good news is that De La Cruz remains an absolute freak of nature and a genuine star. Not a ton else has gone right for Cincinnati, though. Their 22.5-game deficit in the division is the most of anyone in the league besides the Rockies and Giants in the NL West, both of whom are very bad.
