CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 The NL Central has reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes. It has some of the majors’ most promising rookies, like Sal Stewart, Konnor Griffin and JJ Wetherholt. It has young stars like Elly De La Cruz and older ones like Christian Yelich.<\/p>\n
Maybe this strong start from all five teams isn’t that big a surprise after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a really good division,\u201d Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman said. \u201cObviously, good pitching, good offenses, and all the teams have gotten off to a good start. So we know that we’ve got our work cut out for us in this division.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heading into Tuesday, the NL Central is the only division in baseball in which every team has a winning record. It’s the second-latest date in a season that every NL Central club has been over .500, according to Sportradar, trailing May 29, 2004, when the division had six teams and each one was 23-22 or better.<\/p>\n
The NL Central and NL West each had a composite record of 80-61, followed by the AL East at 73-69. The NL East (64-79), AL Central (66-79) and AL West (66-80) all had losing records as a division.<\/p>\n
It’s impressive territory for an NL Central that had four teams among MLB’s 12 smallest payrolls on opening day<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are good athletes in the NL Central. The style of play is interesting,” St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “You see how collectively they play the game and where their record\u2019s at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Powered by Cruz and Stewart, the Cincinnati Reds lead the way with an 18-10 record. The Cubs are 1 1\/2 games back, followed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in third at 16-13. The Cardinals are 15-13, and the Milwaukee Brewers are last with a 14-13 mark.<\/p>\n Milwaukee won the division in 2025 for the third consecutive year. Chicago and Cincinnati also made the playoffs as wild cards.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had three teams in the playoffs last year. We were the only division in the National League to have three,\u201d Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “In previous years, we\u2019ve never had respect. … The (division) has been very good and last year was evidence. This year is not surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cubs signed Bregman to a $175 million, five-year contract<\/a> in free agency, and the Reds and Pirates also made significant offseason additions. But the Central also has benefited from the arrival of a group of promising young hitters.<\/p>\n Stewart, 22, leads the majors with 29 RBIs in 28 games for the Reds. Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros, 22, is batting .387 in 25 games for the Cubs. Wetherholt, 23, has connected for a solo homer in each of his last three games.<\/p>\n Griffin, who signed a $140 million, nine-year contract<\/a> with Pittsburgh on April 8, is showing signs of shaking off his slow start. He hit his first career homer on his 20th birthday<\/a> Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cA ton of young talent in the division, and I feel like that\u2019s really exciting,\u201d Bregman said.<\/p>\n The Central also has been helped by a patient approach at the plate.<\/p>\n The Cubs lead the National League with 130 walks, followed by the Brewers at 126 and the Reds at 119. The Pirates are fifth with 110, and the Cardinals have 103 walks so far.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about trying to put together quality at-bats and those are leading to walks,\u201d Brewers outfielder Garrett Mitchell said. “It\u2019s part of our identity, putting together quality at-bats.\u201d<\/p>\n It remains to be seen how the standings shake out once the NL Central starts seeing more of each other. St. Louis played its first division game Monday night when it rallied for a 4-2 victory<\/a> at Pittsburgh. Cincinnati, Chicago and Milwaukee have played just three division games apiece.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of really good teams,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. \u201cWhen you look at the way we got three teams into the playoffs last year and the way we\u2019ve started out this year with all five teams playing good baseball, it\u2019s been a lot of fun. It\u2019s cool to see the division be so strong. There\u2019s going to be a lot of really good games.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP freelance reporters Rich Rovito and Santos Perez contributed to this report.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n