Brewers baseball season is almost upon us. Pitchers and catchers do not report to spring training until the middle of February, but one national pundit does not feel favorably about the likelihood of the Milwaukee Brewers dethroning the St.Louis Cardinals as National League Central champions this season.
Will Leitch, a staff writer for mlb.com, ranked the six division winners in 2022 in the order of which teams are the most likely to repeat. In his January 12 article “Which Division Champ Is Most Likely To Repeat in ’23?”, Leitch is most confident that the World Series champion Houston Astros will defend their American League West crown. and he surprisingly chooses the New York Yankees as least likely to replicate last year’s division title.
THE CARDINALS CHANCES OF REPEATING AS DIVISION CHAMPS
Leitch ranks the St. Louis Cardinals’ odds of winning the National League Central title as the third-most plausible outcome in 2023. Following the Astros and the second-most probable repeat winner, the NL West Lo Angeles Dodgers, Leitch feels the Cardinals did more in the off-season than their division foes to win now. “The Cardinals have an urgency to win right now that the rest of this division seems to lack. That should be enough to get it done again in 2023.”
Going further, Leitch ranked this list accordingly because of the lack of faith he has in the other NL Central teams, most notably the Brewers, to step up and compete with the aggressive nature of the Cardinals’ front-office transactions. He feels “they still look like the best team in this division by a good margin, despite some additions from the Cubs and some savvy moves on the margins by the Brewers. (Then again, you never know when the Brewers will just up and trade one of their best players.)”
It is only January, and opening day is still more than two and a half months away. However, the question still remains: Is GM Matt Arnold done dealing, or does he have a proverbial rabbit to pull out of his hat to compete with their hated rivals?
Related: Brewers: The Top Five Second Basemen in Team History
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