The AL Central was home to two playoff teams and three teams with better than .500 records in 2025, with a division race that came down to the final days of the season and ultimately was won by the Cleveland Guardians for the third time in four years.
Cleveland clipped the Detroit Tigers for the Central title, but it was the Tigers who eliminated the Guardians in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. Detroit ultimately lost to Seattle in the ALDS but will enter the 2026 season as the favorites to win their first division title since 2014.
We’ll preview each Central division team’s 2026 outlook ahead, leading to our best bet for the upcoming season.
AJ Hinch’s Tigers should feel aggrieved by the way their 2025 season went. Detroit allowed a significant lead in the division standings to evaporate over the final month, going 9-21 in its final 30 games, while Cleveland posted a 22-8 mark. They got revenge early in the playoffs, but it was short-lived.
Since then, the Tigers laid low in the offseason with the exception of arbitration negotiations with ace Tarik Skubal. The two-time reigning Cy Young winner does not yet have a deal in place for 2026, and although that’s expected to be resolved before he reports for Training Camp, it has given Tigers fans cause for concern that their star pitcher might not be in town for the long haul. Detroit re-signed closer Kyle Finnegan and Gleybar Torres to short-term deals to keep a couple of key pieces of their roster intact for the upcoming season.
Cleveland and Kansas City both added reliever depth in free agency and are expecting contributions from top prospects at the big league level to elevate their performance. Guardians’ top-50 prospects Travis Bazzana and Chase DeLauter are slotted to make their regular-season debuts in 2026, with DeLauter projected to be in the Opening Day lineup after becoming just the sixth player in MLB history to make his first MLB appearance in the playoffs, according to MLB.com.
For the Royals, catcher Carter Jensen’s impressive 20-game stretch at the end of last year is reason for hope. The organization’s top prospect will pair with the powerful Jac Caglianone, who showed promise but struggled in 2025, to form a left-handed combo that should make Kansas City’s lineup dangerous from top to bottom.
Minnesota was the favorite to win the Central in 2025 before faltering to a 70-win effort due to poor pitching, ranking 24th in ERA and giving up the 6th-most hits in baseball. The Twins signed Josh Bell to play first base following Josh Naylor’s trade to Seattle in 2025 and added Victor Caratini while allowing Christian Vasquez to walk.
Second baseman Luke Keaschall posted a .302/.382/.445 slash line in 182 plate appearances last year and will slot into the top of the Twins lineup in 2026. The health and effectiveness of their rotation remains a question mark, with top arms Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez supported by young arms like Zebby Matthews, Simeon Woods Richardson, and Taj Bradley.
The bottom of the Central should be occupied by the Chicago White Sox in 2026. They won 60 games last year, a 19-win improvement over their dubious 2025 result, which ranked second-worst in MLB history. Chicago’s noticeable shift in the right direction was supported by encouraging debut seasons from shortstop Colson Montgomery and starter Shane Smith, both of whom finished top-10 in AL Rookie of the Year balloting.
The same theme will continue in 2026, with eight of nine projected players in the batting order being younger than 27 at the season’s start. This includes catcher Kyle Teel, and infielders Chase Meidroth and Munetaka Murakami. Murakami is Chicago’s prized acquisition from Japan, where the 26-year-old infielder won two MVP awards and slugged 265 home runs in 1,003 games, which should help the club in the wake of Luis Robert Jr.’s trade to the Mets.
For all intents and purposes, the Central was Detroit’s division in 2025, and they allowed Cleveland to take it from them. AJ Hinch’s pedigree as a manager, along with the shared experience of last year, both stand to give the organization a renewed focus ahead of this season, one centered on achieving what’s rightfully owed to them.
The Tigers saw resurgent efforts from Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson at the plate in 2025, where the duo combined for 67 home runs. Their all-in approach to hitting contributed to their streakiness in the standings; Detroit ranked 10th in home runs but 26th in strikeouts and dead last in stolen bases.
While concerning, that profile is not a dealbreaker in the AL Central. The average division-winner’s record in the last five seasons is 90-72, which Detroit should have easily met in 2025 if they hadn’t collapsed post-All-Star Break. We see their profile as one that can sustain itself in a relatively weaker division over the course of the season, but isn’t yet built to win in the playoffs. We’ll take the favorites to rely on star pitching and timely hitting to capture an elusive division title.