{"id":391806,"date":"2025-11-20T08:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/391806\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T08:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:10:10","slug":"how-mlb-execs-rank-cincinnati-reds-world-series-future-vs-division-foes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/391806\/","title":{"rendered":"How MLB execs rank Cincinnati Reds World Series future vs. division foes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Skeptical about the chances for a Cincinnati Reds<\/a> World Series championship anytime soon in an MLB world of $765 million outfielders and the relentlessly spending Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Get in line behind a large majority of MLB executives.<\/p>\n

That might sound as obvious as it does pessimistic. But even with a Hall of Fame-caliber manager and coming off a playoff berth, a poll of executives representing more than two-thirds of MLB teams gave the Reds little chance of becoming the next World Series champ from among even the teams in its own division \u2013 a National League Central in the midst of its longest collective World Series drought since the division was formed in 1994.<\/p>\n

Next fall will mark 10 years since the Central division from either league had a team in the World Series, since both did in 2016, with the Cubs beating Cleveland \u2013 long enough ago that nobody\u2019s left from the Cubs\u2019 roster or field staff and the other team goes by a new nickname.<\/p>\n

In two trips to the National League Championship Series the past seven seasons, the NL Central hasn\u2019t won so much as a game.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Dodgers have won five of the last nine National League pennants (and three World Series) by themselves.<\/p>\n

So we asked baseball insiders from across both leagues during the recent general managers meetings at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas for a prediction: Who will be the next World Series winner from the National League Central?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I happen to be in Las Vegas, and I was betting on it?\u201d said one MLB executive. \u201cI would say the Cubs just because of the payroll capacity and the market size and the maturation of the front office and operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

How long that might take, considering the roiling economic landscape and labor-contract turmoil, is another, more nebulous, question.<\/p>\n

As one exec quipped, \u201cThat include realignment? Realignment is my answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comment about the Cubs roughly summed up the majority opinion in the survey of executives from 21 teams, conducted by two baseball writers from the Cincinnati Enquirer and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch over two days of conversations with baseball operations leaders.<\/p>\n

The Reds got one vote because \u201cthey have a good foundation with good pitchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs received the most votes, 11, with most citing their financial resources. And the 97-win, small-spending Brewers got seven. Neither the Cardinals nor Pirates received a vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two AL execs declined to vote.<\/p>\n

All voters were given anonymity to incentivize candor. Of the 21 polled, 11 were from the National League, and all five NL Central teams were represented (with the stipulation that no one was allowed to vote for his own team).<\/p>\n

Whether the results underscore the growing economic reality in the sport that sent only teams with top-four payrolls to the last two World Series, that revenue and payroll disparity between markets is why the question was asked in the first place.<\/p>\n

Four of the bottom five teams in MLB\u2019s \u201cmarket score\u201d rankings used to calculate revenue sharing are in the NL Central. The fifth NL Central team \u2013 the Cubs \u2013 are in the top five.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dynamics for winning in small markets continue to be more and more challenging as the years pass just given the resource gap between where the largest markets are and the revenues they generate and what they\u2019re able to spend vs. the revenues smaller markets generate and what they\u2019re able to spend,\u201d one survey respondent said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a massive gap in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So that makes the Cubs the obvious choice when predicting the next World Series winner from the NL\u2019s flyover division?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the most money. They can dwarf anybody with resources,\u201d one respondent said.<\/p>\n

Three more who voted for the Cubs:<\/p>\n