We have done a lot of talking about the painfully slow crawl of this offseason. That might be true for the vast majority of baseball but for the three viable contenders in the NL Central division, it’s been a completely different story. This offseason has seen the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, and St. Louis Cardinals all make big moves to fortify their positions for what figures to be another exciting race for the crown in the Midwest.
Yu Darvish’s arrival will make the NL Central even more interesting
Sunday’s Say Hey, Baseball examines the landscape in the NL Central, which figures to be the most intriguing division in all of baseball right now.
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Before Saturday’s news broke, Milwaukee was busy making splashes in the oasis of activity within this desert of an offseason. The Brewers shook up the baseball world in a single day with the signing of Lorenzo Cain and the trade for Christian Yelich and they were rumored to be interested in signing some high-end free agents as well. The Brewers saw how close they came to toppling the Cubs in the NL Central last season and realized that the time has come to start trying to go for it and they have to be commended for doing so.
While the Brewers were busy making moves, another team in the NL Central was taking advantage of Miami’s fire sale. Don’t let the slow offseason fool you into thinking that it was ages ago when the Cardinals traded for Marcell Ozuna and he will do nothing but help improve a team that is aiming to rebound from an underwhelming 2017 campaign. Even with all of this, you still would have been wise to tab the Cubs as the favorites in the NL Central and now it looks like an even wiser decision after they managed to convince Yu Darvish to sign a six-year deal that could be worth $150 million if all goes extremely well.
While the Cubs may still be the safe pick to once again win the NL Central, it’s not like the two teams who legitimately have their sights set on toppling the defending divisional champs are just going to roll over and fall by the wayside. Instead, the Brewers and Cardinals are looking to fight the Cubs right down to the early days of autumn and it will surely be entertaining for those of us who will be observing from afar.
- Grant Brisbee spent some time going into detail about the contract Yu Darvish signed and what it means for the Cubs and Darvish himself going forward.
- I already linked you to Bleed Cubbie Blue’s reaction to signing Yu Darvish and now it’s time to see what our resident Brewers blog had to say about the Cubs beating them to the punch in this regard.
- Travis Sawchik of FanGraphs posted his thoughts on the big signing and summed it up by simply stating that Darvish needed the Cubs and the feeling was mutual.
- J.T. Realmuto has made it known that he wants out of Miami and he may end up going from the doghouse to the penthouse if the Astros are the team to acquire him.
- Starlin Castro was yet another Marlins player who wanted out but apparently he’s changed his mind and is now willing to stay.
- Pitchers and catchers are reporting this week, but the crew over at Over The Monster is already thinking about what the Red Sox lineup will look like once Opening Day rolls around.
- Jharel Cotton didn’t exactly come out of the gates firing on all cylinders in the wake of his first full season in the bigs and Athletics Nation spent some time trying to work out a fix for the young righty.
- Mike Foltynewicz had himself an unforgettable Saturday. Shortly after news broke that he lost his arbitration case with the Braves over $100,000 (seriously), he announced to the world that his son had been born. What’s a few measly stacks compared to the miracle of life?
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