Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
JUPITER, Fla. — There’s a favorite to win the 2024 National League Central race, and its first full-squad workout of spring training took place Monday, some 2,300 miles from Mesa, Ariz.
While the big-market, big-money Cubs are playing around at the edges with their payroll, so far avoiding an opportunity to grab control of a division they should control more often than not but don’t, the Cardinals — a last-place team in 2023 — have bubbled up to the top of the Central, according to the leading projection models.