The NL Central is a never ending power fluctuation that usually see’s its teams in a tight battle up until the last weeks of the season. This past year the division champs were the Red Birds, who in fact were the third different team to win it in the past 3 seasons. Already this offseason has caused speculation that a new champ would be dawned, this one playing out of a city called Cincinnati. The rise of the Reds has to do with obviously the work their front office has done to improve the roster since the trade deadline, but also because of the steps back each of their rivals will be taking next year. The 2019 division champ Cardinals have been silent so far this offseason, and with the likely possibility of losing Ozuna and their roster aging it looks like they are on a downwards trend. The Cubs after their 2016 championship appeared to be on the verge of having a dynasty with their incredible young core, but the team has since underperformed and will likely trade one of if not all of the group including Bryant, Contreras, Schwarber. The Brewers who fought valiantly without Yelich to get a Wild Card will definitely decline due to the departure of Moose and the fact that they have zero pitching whatsoever won’t help them either. The Pirates were bad and will be bad again. The Reds unlike all their competitors are on an upwards trend. At the deadline even though they were out of the playoff race their GM pulled the trigger and got arguably the best arm available at the time. They took advantage of the Indians small fire sale and got their ace for the next few seasons. Then this offseason they signed Mike Moustakas, for 4 years 64 million which is an overpay to say the least but hey it’s still a big improvement to their infield and they weaken the Brewers lineup. Their focus now is on getting a shortstop which many think they could go the Didi route, but their are still other options like Addison Russell or maybe a trade opportunity pops up. Nonetheless they have a solid roster in place already with Eugino Suarez, Senzel, Winker and hopefully Votto could get it going again after a down year. The pitching staff is very solid with Trevor leading it, followed by guys like Gray who was great this season and Castillo who is always improving. As of right now they are a team with a lot of upside, but with a lot of young talent that can always go astray. That being said the division is certainly not in the bag but with a few more acquisitions the Reds will be the favorites going into the 2020 season.
Published by Fran Cava
TheBuzzedBeat 