No division in baseball is doing it like the NL Central right now.
A year after sending three teams to the National League playoffs, the Central is even more well-rounded in 2026.
Every single team in the division currently has a winning record. It's the only one in MLB that can say that.
NL Central standings entering play Monday
- Reds: 14-8 (.636 winning percentage)
- Cardinals: 13-8 (.619)
- Pirates: 13-9 (.591)
- (tie) Cubs: 12-9 (.571)
- (tie) Brewers: 12-9 (.571)
The "worst" teams in the division, the Brewers and Cubs, have a .571 winning percentage entering this week -- and they were the two teams who finished at the top of the division last season, with Milwaukee winning it.
If you dropped either of them into, say, the AL Central or AL West today, Milwaukee and Chicago would both be in first place.
It's always fun to see a wide-open division race in baseball -- especially when it's wide open because every team is good.
But imagine the season ended today. Just how rare would it be to see a division finish like the NL Central looks right now? Let's find out.
Has a division ever finished with every team having a winning record?
As it turns out, no!
MLB's Divisional Era goes back to 1969. Since then, there's never been a division where every team finished the season with more wins than losses.
The 2026 NL Central would be the first if that somehow happened.
OK, so what about a record of .500 or better?
Now that has happened … but only twice.
There's no case in the Divisional Era where every team in a division has finished over .500, but there are two times where every team in a division has finished at or above .500.
It hasn't happened in more than 20 years, though. The last time was the 2005 NL East, when the Braves, Phillies, Mets, Marlins and Nationals all finished .500 or better.
And the only other time before that? The 1991 AL West, which saw the Twins, White Sox, Rangers, A's, Mariners, Royals and Angels all do it.
You can read about those two divisions right here.
That means the best record for a last-place team is …
That's right, 81-81. A perfect .500 is the high mark for a last-place team in the Divisional Era.
The 2005 Nats went 81-81 to finish last in the NL East, and the 1991 Angels finished 81-81 to finish last in the AL West.
So it’s pretty unlikely that the 2026 Brewers, Cubs or any other team in the NL Central would finish .500 or better … but also finish last in the division.
How often do teams with records like the Brewers and Cubs make the playoffs?
Let's go back to the current Central standings, and the .571 winning percentage that's only good for last place as of Monday. Does a record like that normally guarantee a team a playoff spot?
You bet it does. In the Divisional Era, 263 different teams have finished a season at .571 or better (not counting the 1994 season, when there were no playoffs). Over a 162-game season, that's a 93-win team.
Of those 263 teams, 234 made it to the postseason. Only 29 missed the playoffs. (The most recent was the 2019 Guardians at 93-69.) In other words, almost 90% of teams with the winning percentage of the worst teams in the 2026 NL Central are playoff teams.
And it's only been a few years, but since the MLB playoff format expanded to three Wild Card teams in each league in 2022, no 90-win team has missed the playoffs, let alone a 93-win team. Which again, is the minimum win total the 2026 Reds, Cardinals, Pirates, Brewers and Cubs are on pace for.
What if we just look at NL Central history?
The NL Central has never had every team finish over .500 since the division was created in 1994, but it has had all except one team do it.
In 2018, the Brewers, Cubs, Cardinals and Pirates all had winning records, and only the Reds didn't.
The Central also had four teams finish over .500 in 2008, when it was a six-team division. The Cubs, Brewers, Astros and Cards had winning records, but the Reds and Pirates had losing records.
And what about NL Central playoff teams?
Of all the NL Central teams to finish with a .571 or better winning percentage, only one has ever missed the playoffs -- the 1999 Reds, who went 96-67 (.589) but lost a tiebreaking Game 163 to the Mets for the NL Wild Card spot.
If that happened again to another NL Central team in 2026, it’d be pretty wild. But hey, it's baseball, so anything is possible.