2025 NL Central Power Rankings: Week 13 — Battle for supremacy heats up!

Welcome to the 13th week of our NL Central Power Rankings! We’ll release these rankings each week to grade all five teams and place them one through five. As everyone knows with power rankings, these should be taken as gospel and they’re obviously 100% accurate. Without further ado, let’s rank some teams!

1. Chicago Cubs (45-30); 3-2 this week; 93.2% chance to make postseason (Baseball Reference)

The Cubs had a solid week, winning three of four against the Pirates before splitting a pair with the
Brewers
as the second game was rained out. They lost their series opener to the Mariners on Friday night.

Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ, and Dansby Swanson each homered twice this week, while Kyle Tucker’s seven hits led the team as he hit .467/.556/.667 with three doubles and three runs scored. Michael Busch and Nico Hoerner each tacked on six hits.

Matthew Boyd made a pair of solid starts, allowing three runs over 11 innings with a team-high nine strikeouts. Colin Rea also turned in a quality start, while Chris Flexen had the best week out of the bullpen, going four scoreless innings across two outings.

Chicago wraps up with the Mariners on Sunday and will then embark on a road trip that will take them through St. Louis and Houston to end June.

2. Milwaukee Brewers (41-35); 3-2 this week; 40.4% chance to make postseason

Like the Cubs, Milwaukee took three of four against an NL Central foe last weekend, overtaking the Cardinals for second place in the division. They then split their series with the Cubs before routing the Twins on Friday night.

Isaac Collins hit a pair of homers against the Cubs and hit .333/.412/.800 with five hits on the week, while Christian Yelich drove in eight on Friday night to finish the week hitting .417/.417/.708 with a team-high 10 hits, 10 RBIs, and four doubles. He also added a homer. Jackson Chourio stayed hot and extended his hitting streak to 10, while Joey Ortiz and Brice Turang each collected seven hits this week in a good all-around week for the offense.

Jacob Misiorowski is about everything the Brewers could have hoped for thus far, as he started his career with 11 no-hit innings before allowing a homer Friday night. He struck out six and picked up the win in that one. Freddy Peralta also got a win, even if it wasn’t pretty (five innings, three runs on two hits and two walks), while Quinn Priester continues to impress with six innings of one-run ball. Trevor Megill picked up a pair of saves, while Nick Mears, Grant Anderson, and DL Hall all had scoreless weeks.

After the Brewers wrap up with the Twins on Sunday, they’ll return home for series with the Pirates and Rockies to end the month.

3. St. Louis Cardinals (41-35); 5-1 this week; 40.3% chance to make postseason

After dropping three of four to Milwaukee over the weekend, the Redbirds bounced back with a sweep of the White Sox before winning their series opener with the Reds on Friday.

Alec Burleson has a huge week offensively, picking up 11 hits, including two homers, as he hit .423/.429/.731 with seven RBIs. Willson Contreras also homered twice, while the now-injured Iván Herrera hit .438/.500/.625 with seven hits, including a homer. Brendan Donovan continued his career year with a .353/.421/.412 week.

Andre Pallante made a pair of solid starts, allowing four runs (three earned) over 10

¹

⁄

₃

innings with 11 strikeouts. Michael McGreevy, Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas, and Matthew Liberatore also turned in solid starts, while Phil Maton, Riley O’Brien, and JoJo Romero were all great out of the bullpen.

St. Louis will continue the homestand with the Reds through Sunday before welcoming the Cubs to town for four games beginning Monday. They’ll then head to Cleveland and Pittsburgh as we turn the calendar to July.

4. Cincinnati Reds (39-37); 4-2 this week; 16.5% chance to make postseason

The Reds took two of three from the Tigers and the Twins this week before dropping their series opener to the Cardinals in St. Louis on Friday night.

Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer each slugged a pair of homers for the Reds, while Matt McClain and Santiago Espinal tied for the team lead with seven hits apiece. McLain hit .368/.455/.526 with a homer, four RBIs, and five runs, while Espinal hit .467/.467/.533 with a double and a run scored.

Brady Singer went 12 innings over two starts, allowing two runs and striking out 11. Andrew Abbott remains in the Cy Young race, as he allowed five runs (but just one earned) and struck out five over 5

²

⁄

₃

innings this week. Wade Miley and Nick Lodolo also turned in solid starts. Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagán were strong out of the bullpen, with Santillan working 3

¹

⁄

₃

scoreless over four outings with five strikeouts.

Cincinnati will wrap up their quick road trip on Sunday in St. Louis before heading home to welcome the Yankees and Padres in a tough homestand to finish June.

5. Pittsburgh Pirates (30-47); 1-5 this week; <0.1% chance to make postseason

Pittsburgh struggled against the Cubs and Tigers this week, losing five of seven to two of the best teams in baseball. They started their weekend series with the Rangers with a loss Friday night.

Andrew McCutchen slugged a pair of homers and hit two doubles in a solid week for him, while Nick Gonzales led the Bucs with nine hits, hitting .346/.346/.500 with a homer, a double, and four runs scored. Spencer Horwitz and Joey Bart both had solid weeks, but the rest of the offense struggled overall.

Paul Skenes struck out nine and allowed two runs over six innings in his start this week, while Mitch Keller also worked a quality start, allowing two runs and striking out three over six frames. Caleb Ferguson, David Bednar, and Dennis Santana all worked scoreless weeks out of the bullpen.

The Pirates wrap up with the Rangers on Sunday before heading to Milwaukee for a quick three-game set. They’ll then end June at home with series against the Mets and Cardinals.