A year after the Milwaukee Brewers emerged as the runaway champion, each of the four teams competing in the National League Central division are only a few months away from going at it again, with each of them hoping to win it all in 2025.
A year ago, the Brew Crew won the division by 10 games over the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, who finished with dueling 83-79 records, while the Cincinnati Reds (77-85) and Pittsburgh Pirates (76-86) brought up the rear.
This season, oddsmakers from DraftKings Sportsbook have the Cubs as their preseason favorite to win the NL Central, at +115, ahead of Milwaukee (+250), Cincinnati (+500), St. Louis (+800) and Pittsburgh (+900).
Spring Training games are just a bit over a month away. As we await more updates on Missouri sports betting, BetMissouri.com was curious about which teams in the NL Central have the greatest potential for success in the coming years based on each franchise’s farm system. Using MLB.com, FanGraphs.com, and Baseball-Reference.com, we created a ranking system factoring in the average future value of the top 10 prospects for each team, overall farm system ranking, and number of players in the top 100 prospects.
Ranking NL Central Farm System Potential
Rank | Team | Score |
1 | Chicago Cubs | 82.8 |
2 | Cincinnati Reds | 59.7 |
3 | St. Louis Cardinals | 59 |
4 | Milwaukee Brewers | 57.3 |
5 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 19 |
Which NL Central Team Leads The Way?
In 2025, we have the Cubbies as the team to beat when it comes to farm system depth, with a total score of 82.8 points, ranking well ahead of the next closest divisional foe (Cincinnati, at 59.7), with St. Louis (59), Milwaukee (57.3) and Pittsburgh (19) rounding out the list.
Using FanGraphs.com as an example, we can see why Chicago’s such a far-and-away favorite, as the Cubs are ranked as the fifth best farm system in baseball by the analytics-driven site, with a total farm system value of $229 million.
The next closest system according to the site is Milwaukee, which is ranked 17th out of 30 teams with a total value of $167 million, while the Pirates are 19th with a value of $157 million and St. Louis checks in at No. 21 with a value of $140 million.
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Author
Christopher Boan is a lead writer for BetMissouri.com, specializing in covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
