At the quarter mark of the Major League Baseball regular season, the most striking thing about the NL Central was not just who was leading it, but how crowded it had become. The Cubs entered a three-game set against the Brewers atop the division, carrying baseball’s third-best record while the rest of the Central stayed above.500, the only division in the sport that could say that.
The Cubs were supposed to get there behind Justin Steele, Cade Horton and Matthew Boyd, the three arms Chicago expected to anchor the top of its pitching staff in the 2026 season. Instead, Steele hit a setback in his rehab, Horton underwent season-ending surgery and Boyd tore his meniscus while playing with his children. That left Chicago to chase the standings without the rotation it built its plan around, even as the team kept winning enough to sit in first place.
The weekly MLB Power Rankings item that made the point was not really about the Cubs alone. It was about what each club had lost by the time the calendar reached the season’s first true checkpoint. Atlanta, for instance, was said to have missed Spencer Schwellenbach most before Ronald Acuña Jr. was activated off the injured list on Monday, a reminder that one return can barely cover the absence of another. The Dodgers, meanwhile, were listed with 12 pitchers on the injured list after Blake Snell went under the knife, an injury pileup that would have sunk most clubs but has not stopped them from staying in the conversation.
That said, not every loss has carried the same weight. The Dodgers, the rankings noted, had not missed Edwin Díaz much because Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia and Kyle Hurt had locked down the late innings. Tyler Glasnow was dealing with lower back spasms, but he still had a 2.72 ERA. The contrast in those updates showed how thin the line can be between a roster that survives injuries and one that is defined by them.
The Brewers’ case was different, and it pointed straight at the middle infield. Joey Ortiz was described as a glove-first shortstop who had been outclassed by major-league pitching, and Milwaukee could use a shakeup at shortstop or simply someone with a competent bat. That is where 21-year-old Pratt entered the picture, with a.745 OPS in Triple A and the kind of profile that suggests a club looking for a spark may be ready to take a look.
For the Cubs, the larger story is less about a single series than about survival. The division race is tight because all five clubs are still in the hunt, but Chicago has already lost the rotation it expected to define the first half. Holding first place under those conditions is real work, not a placeholder. And if the Cubs are still sitting on top when the injuries finally stop changing the roster, the rest of the NL Central will have to deal with a team that has already proved it can win without the plan it drew up in spring.
