The 2018 NL Central was a tangled draw, baseball’s only division to finish with four different teams above .500. (Sorry, Reds.) The Cardinals’ deal for Paul Goldschmidt only makes sure that it’ll stay a toss-up—the division now has even more talent, and still has no strong favorite.
There has to be a favorite, of course, for the sake of Las Vegas and projection analysis. As you’d probably expect, it’s still the Cubs. That only makes sense, with a significant portion of talent still intact from the 2016 World Series. But they entered last year as a favorite, too—only to be hampered by a slow start and squeezed by a midsummer spark from the Pirates, an intense late run from the Cardinals, and a season-long assault from the Brewers.