We are a third of the way through the 2026 Major League Baseball season. That means there are a little more than a 100 games remaining. The American League Central Division has had a lot of surprises in the first 60 games. Here is how the season has played out so far and what we can expect.

Minnesota:

Let’s start with a fun fact. The Minnesota Twins have nine guys who can bat left-handed. Let this serve as notice to all you Little League coaches out there who are like the ones who keep telling my son he shouldn’t switch hit. What’s the matter? You can’t teach it so they can’t do it? What do you mean this post isn’t about me? You’re the one who’s selfish.

Anyway, seven guys are hitting between .245 and .261. That’s respectable. Catcher Ryan Jeffers was hitting .295 to lead the team until he broke a bone in his hand. Orlando Arcia is hitting .281, but that’s 40 points above his career average, so he won’t likely be there for long. Byron Buxton has supplied the power with 29 extra-base hits. The hitting isn’t the problem.

The pitching is.

Joe Ryan (3.20 Earned Run Average) and Taj Bradley (3.56) have been good. Everyone else is a fifth or sixth starter. The bullpen isn’t much better. Combined, they have a Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched of 1.389. If the starters are giving up runs, the bullpen has to do better than a 4.38 ERA. Yoendrys Gómez (0.68 ERA) has been great, but he only has three saves. Eric Orze (3.64) has been good. I’m sure Minnesota thought Anthony Banda was going to fill the lefty set-up role right out of the chute. His first 15 games were awful. His last 15 have been great (0.68 ERA). It’s odd that his WHIP during the last seven is 1.41.

The good news? Their four best relievers are on the Injury List. Of course, that’s also the bad news. If they can get the pitching straightened out, they have a chance at the division title. They’re only 6.5 back. Marco Rayas, CJ Culpepper, and Kendry Rojas are all pitchers predicted by Milb.com to be called up from AAA. Even middling results would be an improvement.

Forecast: Minnesota looks to be a 78-win team, but could/should? make a late run.

Cleveland

The Guardians can’t hit. Fortunately for them, they haven’t needed to. They’re fifth in walks, which makes their on-base percentage in the middle of the pack. Slugging is third from the bottom.

On the mound, three of the starters have been solid. Parker Messick (2.24 ERA), Gavin Williams, and Joey Cantillo are 1-2-3 I. The rotation and could go up against anyone. Remember those names come playoff time. Tanner Bibee and Slade Cecconi could certainly be better. The ERA for Cleveland’s bullpen is more than half a run less than the nearest team in the division, the Detroit Tigers (4.11). The ERAs of the Twins (4.62) White Sox (4.75) and Royals (4.89) put those three in the bottom quarter of Major League Baseball (Source:covers.com). 

Offensively, the Guardians are trying to take advantage of their opportunities.  Cleveland has stolen 54 bases -tied for third with the surprising Washington Nationals. The problem is that opportunities have been few and far between. The Killer Z’s are trying. Bazzana is hitting .300. Kyle Manzardo and his mustache are hitting .229. That’s two points higher than Jose Ramirez, who is hitting 50 points below his career average (.167 in his last seven games). Brayan Rocchio’s first 800 at-bats as a pro were forgettable. This year he’s hitting .293 with four homers and nine stolen bases. Rookie Chase DeLauter has been solid (.260, seven HRs).

Their catchers could be the worst offensive tandem ever. Combined they’re hitting .200. Oh, wait a minute. I forgot about Miguel Maldonado. Fun fact: when he was with the Houston Astros, he and Jason Castro combined to hit .136 in 2022 according to FoxSports. Un-be-liev -able. Okay, so they’re not that bad, but they are very far from good. Bo Naylor (.194 career ave.) won’t be any better when he comes back from his assignment in the minors. Good grief. Is Rhys Hoskins a catcher? (Shoutout Sacramento State!) He’s hitting .190. 

Forecast: They’ve made it this far with two really good starters and a handful of relievers. Their July schedule has only a couple of games you’d call easy. The White Sox and Marlins and Pirates are all fighting for a playoff spot. If they can be at .500 entering August, they’ll face Colorado and Anaheim enough times they can get to 85 wins.

Detroit

Part of the Tigers problem seems to be leaving the starters in too long. They are second in something called BQR (Bequeathed Runners), who are runners on base when the starter is pulled. Not surprisingly -given the state of the bullpen- they are third in BQS, which is bequeathed runners scoring. By comparison, the Los Angeles Dodgers have had only 46 runners belonging to the starter and are best in not allowing those runners to score. Thanks to baseball reference.com for the knowledge drop. 

Starter, Jack Flaherty is mowing people down (70 K’s in 57.2 ip), but he’s also getting hit (.263 average against). His ERA is 5.31. They were expecting more from Framber Valdez and the 5.26 ERA he’s given them over the last seven games.

Yes, the bullpen has allowed 36 inherited runners to score, but that number looks pretty good considering they’ve come into the game with 119 men on base. Keider Montero has been the most consistent starter(1.00 WHIP) they’ve had along with Casey Mize (2.27 ERA), who is putting together a Cy Young-quality season. He’s become the ace. Tarik Skubal has appeared in only seven games. He’s recovering after surgery to remove “loose bodies” in his elbow. 

The Tigers have begun to hit…a little. The team average is up to .236 after being in the .220s for much of the year. Seven players are hitting better than .236. Outfielder Riley Greene, shortstop Kevin McGonigle, second baseman Gleyber Torres, and catcher Dillon Dingler are all contributing significantly. What they don’t have is depth. Ten players are hitting worse than .211. That’s a lot of havese and have nots.

The recent signing of the unfortunately-named James Outman (.151 ave. in 86 games with Minnesota) likely won’t help, unless Detroit can unlock the secret to Outman’s meteoric rise in 2023. He was hitting .290 the first week of May that year. His performance at the plate has been in free fall since.

Forecast: The pitching should improve with Skubal’s return and Detroit is in position to save some team some money during a fire sale and get another bat…or two. They’re only 8.5 games out of first, even though they’re 12 games under .500. This screams, “Ready to make a run.” They have a ton of games against Houston in June, three sub .500 teams in July, and games against the Twins, Rockies, and Nationals in September. I think they get to .500. 81 wins.

Chicago White Sox

Three years of 100-plus losses could end with a playoff berth? Never been done before. Heck, no team has made the playoffs after two consecutive triple-digit-loss seasons. 

But here’s Chicago, and they are leading the Central. Munetaka Murakami has already hit 20 mun balls (Homophonic puns are still okay, kids. Language is supposed to be fun!) He hasn’t been fun for opposing pitchers. He’s gone yard once every ten at-bats. 

At third base, newb Colson Montgomery is swinging and missing way too much, but when he connects, it goes far. Thirty percent of his hits are homers (16). 

He could take pointers from Miguel Vargas. The former Dodger is hitting 42 points higher than his career average coming into the season and has lowered his strikeout-to-walk ratio this season to just a shade over 1:1. Pretty impressive.  He has as many long homers as Montgomery. Andrew Benintendi (also a former Dodger) has been decent while providing veteran leadership. 

There are more no-name guys contributing in some way to this success. Every night,  Tristan Peters, Sam Antonacci, Chase Meidroth, Jacob Gonzalez, or Everton Pereira step up to do something to win a game. It’s a fun team to watch. 

On the mound, they need another starter and bullpen depth. Davis Martin (2.41 ERA). Sean Burke (3.88 ERA) and Anthony Kay (4.34 ERA) have been a solid 1-2-3. but the four reliable guys they count on have been really good. Eric Fedde allows a run every two innings, which is a little better than his 4.94 career ERA. Sean Newcomb, Grant Taylor, Bryan Hudson and Seranthony Dominguez have been really good out of the pen. 

Those four guys are going to wear out at this rate. They have outscored the opposition 326-310 in 68 games. They need a couple of those guys who are giving up a run every other outing to do better. 

Forecast: How fun is it to talk about the White Sox having a playoff shot! They’re in the right division to do it. If they can make a move for a little help, they could reach 90 wins. If everyone collapses at once (entirely possible), we could be looking at 74. Let’s go for 90!

Kansas City: After a 2025 season that saw them missing the playoffs, the Royals were hoping to have a starting five that would carry them. The 29-44 record might indicate that that plan failed. Cole Ragans lasted all of eight games before his left elbow sent him to the Injured List. Chris Bubic followed suit.

But that is not what ails the Royals. Stephen Kolek has stepped in to be the ace in the eight games he has started (2.68 ERA, 1.03 WHIP). The rest of the starters have been solid number-three or fourth starters. Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo (3.58 and 3.86 ERA respectively) have been good. Hopefully, Lugo is out for only a minute while in concussion protocol. Noah Cameron hasn’t been as good as his first 24 games in the league, but he hasn’t been terrible (4.11 ERA, 64 K’s in 70 innings).

They need a fifth starter. Occasional starter Luinder Avila sort of looked like he had things figured out to start the month of June. He gave up only a run in each of his first two starts. But, he also had only a 1.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio. On Friday, he gave up eight earned runs in .2 innings.

Still, it’s not the starters who are responsible for a disappointing start. It’s the bullpen that is the fourth worst in baseball. D Lynch IV has been great. Unfortunately for the Royals, there are a dozen other guys with ERAs north of 5.00. Lucas Erceg has 12 saves, but has blown seven and has an ERA of 5.81.

Offensively, Bobby Witt Jr. has been solid, but is on pace for just 20 home runs. That would be a third-straight year of decreases if that pans out. Jac Caglianone has been almost as good (.274, 8 HRs) and Maikel Garcia (.267) has delivered as expected. He’s not a guy who is going to hit the ball out of the park, though. Second baseman, Michael Massey has twice as many long balls and he hits lefties and righties equally well. Catcher Salvador Perez leads the team in home runs with nine, but he’s batting only .200. His platoon mate, Carter Jensen is hitting just 20 points better.

Forecast: To put it simply, they are middling at best, with three guys doing excellent work. It’s just not enough hitting and not enough relied pitching to do much of anything. This team is supposed to be past rebuilding. If they keep going like they have, they’re looking at 66 wins. I wouldn’t be shocked if they trade Bobby Witt Jr., even with his $289 million contract. If they can package some of the many relievers who are awful, they might be able to land someone useful from one of the teams that has already decided to scuttle this year and move on.

Beer and baseball have gotten along famously for a couple hundred years. Check out the dark, soothing goodness that stouts have to offer in these troubling times, while hopefully laughing your tail off at stoutcast.com.