MLB Power Rankings: Cubs, Cardinals headed for an NL Central battle, plus a repeat No. 1 team

The Cardinals and the Cubs have one of baseball’s oldest and most storied rivalries. There are probably a Big Three in baseball rivalries with the Yankees/Red Sox and Giants/Dodgers being the other two. The Cardinals and Cubs are certainly the biggest rivalry in the Central divisions. 

And they might well be on a crash course to a battle for the NL Central title. 

The Cubs, of course, are hoping that isn’t the case, given the four-game lead. They’d rather run away and hide than have to deal with the Cardinals creeping up any closer. But the Cardinals just won’t go away. 

Since May 11, the Cubs have gone 17-7, good for the best record in the National League in that timeframe. The Cardinals have gone 14-10 and continue to hang within striking range. They actually fell to five games back after a loss on April 28, but the Cardinals have gone 24-12 since. They just have only made up one game because the Cubs (23-13 in that time) have been so consistently good pretty much all season. 

If you aren’t a fan of either team, you might be wondering what happened when the two teams played each other this season. 

They haven’t yet. 

The quirk of the schedule here is that the rivals don’t square off until June 23. Nearly half the season will have been over before they see one another on the same diamond. The Cubs will have played 79 games before the first meeting in St. Louis while the Cardinals will have played 78.

Of course, the flip side of that is the rivals will play each other 13 times in just over half a season to finish with the final three games coming in Wrigley between the two from Sept. 26-28. 

Will they remain 1-2 in the NL Central? That would be fun. Will they be close? It hasn’t happened in a long time. The last time the Cubs and Cardinals finished 1-2 in the division was 2016 but the Cubs won it by 17 ½ games. In 2015, they were only three games apart, but the Pirates were in between. In 2009, they were first and second, but the Cardinals won by 7 ½ games. 

To find a competitive Cubs vs. Cardinals divisional race, we have to go all the way back to, well, there isn’t one. That 2015 season was the closest they’ve ever been at the top and 2009 was the closest they’ve ever been at 1-2 in a division. If we went back to before there were divisions, how about 1945? The Cubs won the NL pennant over the second-place Cardinals by three games. That was the great Cubs-Cardinals race. 

Aren’t we due another? Will this be the year? It’ll be fun finding out. Both teams look pretty strong right now. 

Biggest Movers

Rk	Teams		Chg	Rcrd
1	Tigers	Tarik Skubal in 83 ⅓ innings has 105 strikeouts and seven walks. That is just absolutely stupid.	—	43-24
2	Mets	Who had Pete Alonso leading the team in hitting (.301) through June 8? No, you didn’t. Don’t lie. He’s also the MLB leader in RBI, though that was a touch more predictable (I actually did predict him to lead the majors in RBI this season!).	—	42-24
3	Yankees	Both the Gerrit Cole injury and Max Fried’s amazing start have overshadowed it, but Carlos Rodón was having an outstanding season before the Red Sox knocked him around Sunday. Was that just a blip or will he fall into inconsistency again?	1	39-25
4	Cubs	Kyle Tucker is third among Cubs outfielders in both home runs and RBI and he’s not even having a bad season. He’s on pace for 30 homers and 100 RBI. That’s just how good Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki have been.	1	40-25
5	Dodgers	The Dodgers have now gone 10-12 in their last 22 games.	2	39-27
6	Padres	The club record for saves in a season is 53 (Trevor Hoffman, obviously, 1998). Robert Suarez is on pace for … 53.	1	37-27
7	Giants	After a pretty bad 2024 season in which he lost his ninth-inning job, Camilo Doval is back to being a dominant closer, but it interestingly comes with his lowest strikeout rate by a sizable margin.	1	38-28
8	Phillies	If you thought last week was bad, how does getting swept in Pittsburgh sound? The Phillies are in a bad way right now.	2	37-28
9	Cardinals	Another scheduling quirk is the Cardinals have only played NL West teams six times (going 5-1 so far) while the Cubs have played that division 26 times.	—	36-29
10	Rays	Somewhat sneakily, the Rays might be the hottest team in baseball. They’ve won 14 of 18.	5	35-30
11	Astros	I was among the crowd who thought the Astros’ run of division titles would end this season. It’s hard to trust anyone else at this point in the AL West, so it looks like we’re headed that way again. The Astros have won the West each of the last seven full seasons.	2	36-29
12	Brewers	The Brewers have four players in double digits in stolen bases, which is just about on pace for 25 (or more). We haven’t seen a team with four 25-steal players since 1990 (Cardinals: Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, Ozzie Smith, Milt Thompson).	2	35-31
13	Blue Jays	The Blue Jays haven’t had a season without a 25-homer player since 2008. The team leader, George Springer, this season is on pace for 24.92. So 25, kind of. It might be close.	3	35-30
14	Twins	The Twins were 13-20 before the 13-game winning streak and have gone 9-10 since. That long winning streak will cover up a lot of failure.	2	35-30
15	Guardians	The Guards have gone 11-15 in the last month. That’s just not gonna cut it.	4	34-30
16	Mariners	Before salvaging Sunday’s game, the Mariners had lost eight of 10.	6	33-31
17	Reds	Christian Encarnacion-Strand is 7 for 13 with a double and three home runs since his return from the minors. He’s homered once in each game. It’s way, way, way early, but perhaps this is the start of his breakout? He’s still only 25.	—	33-33
18	Royals	Through the first five games of his MLB career, Jac Caglianone was just 2 for 21 with some pretty bad batted-ball luck. Things started to even out on Sunday when he went 4 for 4 with a double. He’s fine. The first homer is right around the corner.	—	34-32
19	Red Sox	They got a walk-off win Wednesday before taking two of three in the Bronx. Might that be the start of turning things around?	1	32-35
20	Rangers	They’ve now won two straight, but the Rangers are a pitiful 11-22 on the road.	1	31-35
21	Diamondbacks	They started the month with a four-game winning streak to get back to .500, but now they’ve lost three straight and Corbin Burnes is having Tommy John surgery. It’s a monstrous uphill battle to the playoffs now.	2	31-34
22	Angels	Regular readers know I love finding Rob Deer All-Stars. Take a look at Taylor Ward. He has 18 homers and is hitting .212 with 74 strikeouts.	2	30-34
23	Nationals	Alex Call was in the minors for six years before getting the call to the Show in 2022. In 30 games last season, he hit .343/.425/.525 and so far this season, at age 30, he’s hitting .280/.393/.415. He might well have figured something out. It’s fun.	1	30-35
24	Orioles	They’ve won seven of their last nine, but as I said last week, it really feels like this is too little, too late. They have a 1.3% chance to make the playoffs, per SportsLine. I tell you what, that would be an all-time great revival.	3	26-38
25	Pirates	The Pirates have won four of five. They’ve even managed to win three of Paul Skenes’ last four starts.	1	26-40
26	Braves	The Braves are now a season-low 10 games under .500. They haven’t been 10 games under .500 since the end of the 2017 season.	5	27-37
27	Athletics	The A’s have won three of four, but before that had lost 20 of 21. You just can’t recover from that.	1	26-41
28	White Sox	That’s a 4-2 week for the Sox, who didn’t win their 22nd game last season until June 27. Again, baby steps are still steps!	1	22-44
29	Marlins	The Marlins were swept by the Rockies, who are 9-53 when they don’t play Miami. That is pathetic, Fish.	4	24-39
30	Rockies	Gotta give the Rockies kudos for the three-game sweep in Miami. Nice work, Rox.	—	12-53