Predicting the Best Player Each NL Central Team Will Add for 2026

It’s already been an eventful offseason across Major League Baseball, but the fun is just getting started.

The Winter Meetings begin on Sunday, and with players, agents, and front office executives convening in one place over a four-day period, that’s usually when the MLB offseason starts to gain momentum.

It also means that the most important moves of the offseason are ahead for some teams.

Here at Just Baseball, we are embarking on a new series in the coming days. Inspired by MLB.com’s “finding a perfect free-agent match for every team” article from a few days ago, the Just Baseball editorial team came up with our own predictions for the single-best move that each team in Major League Baseball could realistically make this offseason.

That includes transactions via trade or free agency that fit within the constraints of each team’s given payroll and operating strategy, and also align with what the ball club is trying to accomplish in 2026.

Each division will slowly get rolled out in the coming days, but today our focus will be on the National League Central.

The NL Central has a fascinating blend of teams. It’s one that includes World Series contenders like the Brewers and Cubs, a Reds team looking to take another step forward in 2026, a Pirates organization that is looking to emerge from its rebuild sooner rather than later, and a Cardinals franchise that appears to be headed in a new direction this offseason.

What’s more, most of the teams in this division operate with tight budget constraints. That makes this division one of the more fun ones to predict given how savvy these front offices tend to be and the operating constraints these teams have to work within.

So, here is the best move that each team in the NL Central could make this offseason that would shake up the division in 2026.

Milwaukee Brewers Bolster Rotation With Chris Bassitt

The Milwaukee Brewers were one of the most difficult teams to tackle for this exercise.

A cash-strapped organization, the Brewers typically aren’t big players in free agency and they rarely part with valuable prospect capital to acquire marquee names. For that reason, it’s difficult to pinpoint moves for this team given how particular they are with their trades and free-agent signings.

That said, the Brewers are coming off a third consecutive division title and a franchise-record 97 wins. After coming up short in the NLCS this past season, expectations are that this team — even if they do ship away Freddy Peralta — will look to improve its roster in some capacity to defend its NL Central crown.

The Brewers won’t have a lot of roster turnover this offseason. Their bullpen will look a lot like it did a year ago when it finished with the third-best ERA in the NL, and the core of their lineup is pretty set. However, the starting rotation, even with Brandon Woodruff returning, is the one major area that needs to be addressed this winter.

That’s where Chris Bassitt comes into play.

Bassitt, 36, sports a career 3.64 ERA across 11 MLB seasons and is coming off a three-year stretch with the Blue Jays where he pitched to a 3.89 ERA while averaging over 176 innings pitcher per season.

The Brewers have an abundance of internal options to fill the back of the rotation in Chad Patrick, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, among other young arms. But the Brewers need experience, durability, and consistency to round out the rotation; Bassitt checks all three of those boxes.

In terms of experience, Bassitt is coming off a year with Toronto in which he threw extremely meaningful innings out of the bullpen in the Blue Jays’ magical run to the World Series. While he was phased out of the rotation once the calendar turned to October, the Jays found a way to leverage his arm in some very high-leverage situations.

Durability might be the most appealing aspect of his profile. Bassitt has made at least 30 starts and has thrown at least 170 innings in each of his last four seasons, topping out at 200 innings pitched back in 2023.

With Peralta’s future in Milwaukee unclear, Woodruff dealing with health issues in recent seasons, and many of the Brewers’ young arms returning from injury, they need a guy who they know will toe the rubber every fifth day. Bassitt is that pitcher.

Not only has he been available, but Bassitt has thrown to a sub-4.00 ERA in seven of his last eight seasons. He’s finished with at least 2.3 fWAR in each of his last five seasons, he’s had nearly the same strikeout rate in each of his last four seasons, and he’s posted a single-digit walk rate every season of his career but one (2016 at 10.5% before he went down with Tommy John surgery).

The Brewers also love finesse pitchers that can keep the ball on the ground. Bassitt features a whopping eight-pitch mix and was in the 70th percentile in ground-ball rate in 2025. That’s an arsenal and profile that could be gold for a Brewers’ pitching lab that loves to tweak arsenals to maximize the efficiency of its arms.

But at the end of the day, cost is the big conversation point with the Brewers, especially after Woodruff signed the $22.05 million qualifying offer, signaling the highest single-season salary they have ever given out to a pitcher.

But as Bassitt heads into his age-37 season, he’s not going to command a long-term commitment (one to two years, maximum). The Brewers tend to get creative on how they structure these types of deals, and if his AAV can settle in the $12 million to $15 million range, he should be in Milwaukee’s price range.

It’s not flashy, but it does feel like the picture-perfect fit in so many ways. If the Brewers do spend on a player this winter, Bassitt checks all the boxes of an arm that could thrive in Milwaukee.

Chicago Cubs Swing Big Trade For Frontline Arm Joe Ryan

The Chicago Cubs have a very important offseason ahead of them. They’re, in all likelihood, losing superstar Kyle Tucker to free agency, but they are in a window where they can absolutely compete for the National League pennant with how lethal their lineup is.

Additions need to be made to dethrone the Brewers at the top of the division, though, and the starting rotation is where they can make that meaningful big splash.

Looking at the Cubs’ current rotation, it lacks star power. Matthew Boyd was an All-Star in 2025 and a savior in the rotation, but he is entering his age-35 season, will be coming off nearly 180 innings pitched — which is his most thrown in a single season since 2019 — and slowed down at the end of 2025 with a 4.63 ERA after the All-Star break.

Shota Imanaga too hit a wall with a 4.70 ERA in the second half, leading to the Cubs declining his club option before offering him the qualifying offer — a contract in which they likely did not anticipate he’d accept. Nonetheless, he did accept the QO and will return to the rotation in 2026, but he comes with question marks.

Cade Horton was sensational in the second half of 2025 and finished as the runner up in NL Rookie of the Year voting, but banking on him to repeat that success in his sophomore season, while certainly possible, is all but guaranteed.

Justin Steele is recovering from Tommy John surgery and it’s unclear when he will return to the mound in 2026, and the rest of the rotation is filled with depth pieces.

Joe Ryan would immediately slide in as the ace of this staff and would be the perfect compliment to the other arms around him in the rotation. Despite rumors that the Twins do not anticipate trading Ryan, here’s why the Cubs should still be in pursuit.

Ryan, who was an All-Star for the first time in 2025, is coming off arguably the best year of his career at 29 years old. Matching his career high in fWAR at 3.1, Ryan posted a career-low 3.42 ERA to go with the second-highest K/9 of his career at 10.21.

With Imanaga, Boyd, and Steele (when he returns) all being lefties, a frontline starter who throws right handed would be an ideal pairing with those arms.

Ryan’s four-seam fastball, which was one of the best in baseball with a +18 Run Value, stems from his lower arm slot of 25°. Boyd features a similar delivery but from the left side, also throwing at a 25° arm angle, creating a pairing of mirrored unique deliveries that would give opposing lineups fits in a series.

The Cubs’ rotation finished 23rd in MLB in strikeout rate last season at 20.5%. That’s an area where Ryan thrives, finishing in the 80th percentile or higher in punchout rate in each of his last three seasons. He’s posted a strikeout rate of at least 27% in four of his five big-league seasons.

What’s more, Ryan will be one of the more cost-efficient arms on the market in terms of salary. Estimated to make roughly $6 million in his second year of arbitration this season, per MLB Trade Rumors, that’s a steal for his production.

He’s cheaper than someone such as his teammate, Pablo López, who is set to make $21.75 million in each of the next two seasons, for example.

Now, that means the cost to acquire Ryan will be quite high as a result, but the Cubs have capital to part with. While their farm system took a hit following the graduations of Matt Shaw and Cade Horton, this is a team that has assets to move. After all, they are in win-now mode with a real opportunity to go after a title.

The Cubs need to make a splash of some sort this offseason to get back into World Series contention, and adding Ryan to the rotation would go a long way.

Cincinnati Reds Win the Kyle Schwarber Sweepstakes

For the Cincinnati Reds faithful, bringing in super slugger Kyle Schwarber would be a match made in heaven.

The Reds made the postseason in 2025 for the first time since 2020, but they ultimately went out with a whimper in the wild-card round against the Los Angeles Dodgers. But one thing was made clear this past season: The Reds are not far off from becoming legitimate National League contenders.

The pitching staff is in a great spot with Hunter Greene emerging as an ace in this league and Andrew Abbott taking an impressive step forward, followed by Nick Lodolo along with several young arms coming through the pipeline.

The offense is really where this team has fallen short, not just last season but for the past couple of years. In 2025, the Reds finished 24th in MLB with a 92 wRC+ and 21st in home runs. That’s after they finished 26th in MLB with an 89 wRC+ in 2024. That’s simply not good enough for a team that plays in the hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park, and it’s an area that needs to be addressed for this team to take a step forward.

Well, what better way to address the offense than by adding Schwarber, one of the most prolific power threats in MLB, to hit alongside Elly De La Cruz in the heart of the order.

Schwarber will provide an immediate boost of power to any lineup he joins — what needs to be said about his bat that hasn’t already been said. He’s coming off a year in which he launched a career-high 56 homers, drove in 132 runs, and finished second in MVP voting.

However, what makes him such a great fit for Cincy is his reported interest in a homecoming. A native of Middleton, Ohio, Schwarber has reportedly expressed a desire to return to his home state and play for the team he grew up rooting for, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.

The Reds are an up-and-coming team in MLB, taking a step forward under Terry Francona in his first year managing the team in 2025. This is a very youthful roster, and as cliché as it may sound, perhaps adding a veteran like Schwarber who has ample experience performing in baseball’s biggest moments could be the key to unlock the next level for this team.

The problem is that the Reds will likely need to, at the very least, match the offers from the big-market teams such as the Phillies or the Mets. That will be the biggest barrier standing in the way of Schwarber landing in Cincy, especially if the team isn’t looking to expand payroll.

Whether or not they are willing to pony up the cash remains to be seen, but if they were to spend the money, there could not possibly be a better fit or a more ideal target for them than Kyle Schwarber.

St. Louis Cardinals Sign Veteran Starter Walker Buehler

The St. Louis Cardinals are entering a new era of baseball with Chaim Bloom transitioning into the president of baseball operations role.

They traded away Sonny Gray last week, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado, and Brendan Donovan have been in the thick of trade talks, and it’s time for the Cardinals to go in a different direction.

That said, while they’re not expected to be big spenders in free agency, the starting rotation is one that will need to be addressed one way or another.

This is a rotation that lacks experience and production, especially after parting ways with Gray. Many of the names in this rotation are unproven and coming off down campaigns. The upcoming season will be an important one for the front office to get an idea for who will be a part of the rotation moving forward.

Enter Walker Buehler. A two-time World Series champion with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Buehler is one of the premier big-game pitchers of the last two decades.

Now, nobody is expecting the Cardinals to compete for a World Series title in 2025, but having that type of pitcher in the clubhouse could be extremely advantageous for the development of the Cardinals’ young arms as they find their footing in Major League Baseball.

Before going down with Tommy John surgery back in 2022, Buehler was one of the premier pitchers in the game. The regular season results haven’t been up to standard these past two years as he’s made his way back to the mound, but things started to come together for Buehler at the tail end of 2025 after he joined the Phillies, throwing to a 0.66 ERA across 13.1 innings in Philadelphia.

For Buehler, it would be an opportunity to go to a historically successful franchise and regain some of his stock. If things go well, he could be a prime flip candidate for a contender to acquire at the trade deadline, given his postseason pedigree.

For the Cardinals, they add a proven leader and a bona fide competitor to the rotation. That’s exactly what they need heading into a transition season.

Pittsburgh Pirates Add Much-Needed Pop With Jorge Polanco

By all accounts, the Pittsburgh Pirates are gearing up to spend this offseason. To what degree remains to be seen, but they have been linked to several big free agents already in recent weeks, indicating that they’re serious about improving the offense.

And don’t get it mistaken, there’s plenty to improve in that area. In 2025, they ranked 29th in wRC+ (82) and dead last in OPS (.655) and runs scored. They weren’t much better in 2024, ranking 27th in OPS and 28th in wRC+. The year before that? 22nd in OPS and 25th in wRC+.

The last time the Pirates had an above-average offense by wRC+ was back in 2014, when they posted a team wRC+ of 108. In fact, since 1993, that is the only year the Pirates have ended with a team wRC+ above 100.

In 2025, the Pirates had two hitters finish with a wRC+ above 100: Spencer Horwitz (119) and Joey Bart (101). Needless to say, the offense needs to be addressed if they wish to not waste one of the brightest young rotations in MLB.

While they have been linked to several different hitters already, Jorge Polanco feels like the perfect fit for this organization.

Heading into his age-32 season, Polanco hits a solid middle ground in terms of price. He’ll be cheaper than the upper echelon of free-agent bats, but he has the ability to be a very productive middle-of-the-order hitter at an AAV anywhere around $10 million to $16 million in all likelihood.

Polanco is coming off one of the best seasons of his career and certainly his best since since his peak season in 2021 with the Minnesota Twins. Polanco hit the second-most homers of his career in 2025 with 26, and he ended with the highest wRC+ of his entire career at 132.

His .350 wOBA last season was the second-highest mark of his career only to his lone All-Star campaign back in 2019, and he went from one of the highest strikeout rates in baseball in 2024 (29.3%, 10th percentile) to one of the best in 2025 (15.6%, 83rd percentile).

His defense at second base has deteriorated as he’s aged, which led to him getting much more run at DH last season than ever before (88 games at DH, 38 at second base). Fortunate for the Pirates, they could use help at both spots in the lineup.

It’s yet to be seen if Andrew McCutchen, who has dominated the DH reps over the past few seasons in Pittsburgh, will return for an 18th season. Even if he does, Polanco can mix in at second base, which is currently held by Nick Yorke, and still get some run as the team’s designated hitter.

Even if Polanco doesn’t repeat his level of success from 2025, he feels like a safe bet to immediately be one of the better hitters in Pittsburgh’s lineup if added.

He’s hit 14 homers or more in five straight seasons, he’s posted an above-average wRC+ in four of the last five years, and he’d bring some necessary postseason experience to a Pirates roster that is looking to get into the playoff hunt as soon as 2026. It’s an impact addition without completely breaking the bank, and it’s a move that should certainly be on Ben Cherington’s radar.