MLB Prospects to Watch 2020: National League Central

By: Chris Larson 

The National League Central has a chance to potentially be the most exciting division in all of baseball this coming season. The reason why is because the division is currently in a state of transition and this could be a season in which the Cincinnati Reds make the playoffs for the first time since 2013. All offseason long, the Reds have been very aggressive in free agency trying to supplement their core and roster from last season with the proper additions. If that in turn ends up making them a postseason contender remains to be seen, but props have to be given to the smallest market in baseball for trying to compete. 

Beyond the Cincinnati Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and Milwaukee Brewers all have a shot at potentially winning the division crown and/or one of the National League Wild Card spots. Last season, the Cardinals won the division, but their team took a bit of a step back this offseason especially with the lose of Marcell Ozuna to the Atlanta Braves. Ozuna gave St. Louis a middle of the order bat to pair with Paul Goldschmidt and provided extra offensive assurance. However, the Cardinals will now turn their trust and attention to the team's stable of young outfielders in hopes that one of them will be able to replace that lost offense. Furthermore, the Chicago Cubs have had a lackluster offseason overall, but there are reports that they could still trade third baseman, Kris Bryant prior to Opening Day. Now that Bryant's service time grievance has been decided upon and teams know that they will have him for two seasons instead of just one, there is clarity in terms of what those teams will need to send to the Cubs for a return. 

Outside of the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, and Chicago Cubs, the Milwaukee Brewers will have a shot at winning the National League Central, but will head into yet another season as an under-the-radar team with seemingly no expectations. Despite that though, Craig Counsell & Company will find a way to piece things together and stay in the race for a postseason berth until the very end assuming that all of their impact pieces stay healthy and things go according to plan. Milwaukee hasn't made a significant splash by any means this offseason, but decided to cut payroll at the start of the winter to create more flexibility and augment their roster with secondary pieces. 

Finally, the Pittsburgh Pirates will likely end up rounding out the division, as they continue their rebuild and loading up for the future. The Pirates are under the guidance of an entirely new front office regime led by General Manager, Ben Cherington and Cherington is going to work as hard as possible to build back up the farm system with impactful, high-ceiling prospects. During his major league tenure, Cherington has always made that one of his goals and has always stated how he wants the opportunity to be able to build an organization from the bottom to the top. Now with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cherington will get that opportunity. 

Despite all of those things, all five teams farm system is going to play a crucial role in how successful each team likely will be this coming season. Therefore, attention needs to be given to which prospects are the one to watch throughout the division. Here is one prospect for all five teams to keep an eye on this year: https://lastwordonbaseball.com/2020/01/30/mlb-prospects-to-watch-2020-national-league-central/.