MLB End-of-April Check-in: NL Central

Second Place: Chicago Cubs (19-12)

**Top Position Player:** Nico Hoerner (1.6 fWAR) **Top Pitcher:** Shota Imanaga (1.0 fWAR) Then there’s the Cubs, where you don’t have to look all that hard to figure out how they’ve gotten their record. Chicago’s 169 runs is the third most in baseball through April and they lead the league in OPS+. They only have five individual hitters who have a below 100 OPS+. Two of them aren’t with the big league team at the moment, and two of them are 2025 breakout stars Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch, who you’d expect to rebound to some degree. One negative for the Cubs has been that they lost star pitcher Cade Horton to Tommy John surgery after just a couple starts. However, Shota Imanaga and offseason acquisition Edward Cabrera have held things down in his absence, and Chicago’s roster just seems pretty solid in general.

Third Place: St. Louis Cardinals (18-13)

**Top Position Player:** JJ Weatherholt (1.5 fWAR) **Top Pitcher:** Riley O’Brien (0.7 fWAR) It’s not to the degree of the Reds, but the Cardinals are another team that have outplayed what you would expect by glancing at their stats. The Cardinals’ story has been the play of their youngsters, specifically JJ Weatherholt and Jordan Walker. Weatherholt was a former first round draft pick of St. Louis and was a highly rated prospect coming into 2026. The Cardinals brought him to the big leagues, and he’s hit the ground running, posting a 143 wRC+ so far. Meanwhile, Walker has been around a couple years, but has mostly struggled at the big league level. However, this has been a breakout year so far, as he has a 151 wRC+ with nine home runs. Like the Reds, they have a bullpen that’s been able to win them some close games, although for them it’s mainly just been closer Riley O’Brien, who’s been lights out with a 1.17 ERA and a 1.50 FIP. You do worry about regression to some degree with some of the rest of their staff as they have a couple pitchers who have a way lower ERA than they do FIP.

Fourth Place: Milwaukee Brewers (16-14)

**Top Position Player:** Brice Turang (1.6 fWAR) **Top Pitcher:** Jacob Misiorowski (0.8 fWAR) The unexpected early success of the Reds and Cardinals has the reigning division champ Brewers down in fourth place, even with a slightly above .500 record. A non-zero part of the Brewers’ issue is the inverse of Cincinnati and St. Louis in that they haven’t been as good in close games. Their 16 wins have come by an average margin of five runs. Their 14 defeats have had an average margin of 2.9 runs. On offense, Milwaukee has gotten good seasons out of the likes of Turang, Wilson Contreras, and a resurgent Gary Sánchez. Their rotation has also been pretty solid, albeit their starters aren’t usually going super deep into games. The ingredients seem to be there for them to rise back up in the standings, especially if Cincinnati cools off.

Fifth Place: Pittsburgh Pirates (16-16)

**Top Position Player:** Brandon Lowe (1.2 fWAR) **Top Pitcher:** Carmen Mlodzinski (1.0 fWAR) The Pirates have been dinged even more by the rest of the division getting off to good starts. Pittsburgh would be alone or tied for second in either the AL Central, AL West, and NL East, but are all the way in last in the NL Central. How far up, if at all, they can climb from this point forward probably depends on their young players. Reigning NL Cy Young Paul Skenes has had a weird season in that he’s had some gems featuring deep perfect game bids, but then also has a couple duds. His numbers are still very good, just not as close to dominant as his first two big league seasons have been. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh also recently called up Konnor Griffin, who was the top prospect in baseball according to several sources. He’s put up below average hitting numbers so far, but with that type of talent, he very well could figure things out any day. Other Pirates players have done well enough that if he figures things out, this could be a fun season for them, even if they don’t threaten the playoffs.