(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
The National League Central was widely considered one of the weaker divisions in all of baseball heading into the 2023 season.
Many were expecting the St. Louis Cardinals to win the division with ease.
However, it now appears to be a three-team race between the Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, and Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs especially have been an interesting team in recent weeks.
They have now won six games in a row and reached the .500 mark for the first time since May 19.
In addition, they are only 5.5 games out of first place and four games out in the Wild Card race.
On Twitter, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com pointed out how the perception of the NL Central, which was thought to be a weak division, may be changing.
It’s amazing to think that with all of the talk this season about how bad the NL Central was, the Cubs’ recent play makes it realistic that there could be three playoff teams coming out of that division.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) July 28, 2023
The Brewers currently lead the division, and the Reds have control of the final Wild Card spot.
However, the Brewers and Reds aren’t too far apart from each other, and the Wild Card race is also tightly packed.
This means that the NL Central could ultimately feature three playoff teams.
The last time that more than two teams in the Central reached the postseason, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, was 2015.
The Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cubs all reached the postseason that year.
If it happens again this year, the cast of characters will be slightly different.
But for all the talk of how weak the division was, it could ultimately turn into one of the more interesting divisions as we approach the stretch run of the 2023 season.
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