Cardinals Playoff Odds: St. Louis clear favorite to win NL Central

In this weeks look at Major League Baseball’s playoff odds, the St. Louis Cardinals have emerged as the clear favorite to win the NL Central.

Throughout the first half of the regular season, the Milwaukee Brewers looked like the clear favorites to win the National League Central. Their pitching was dominant while a bullpen led by Josh Hader and Devin Williams were virtually unhittable in the eighth and ninth innings.

Then the St. Louis Cardinals began to surge, the Brewers then dealt Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres in a trade deadline stunner, and everything changed. Now, the Cardinals have a 65.7 percent chance to win the division and 79.5 percent chance to advance to the postseason, according to FanGraphs.

Not only do the Cardinals have a strong chance to make the postseason, they have the makings of a team capable of advancing. The team’s to beat, of course, are the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. Atlanta provides a worthy challenge too, especially as reigning World Series Champions, as do the San Diego Padres with Hader and Juan Soto.

But the Cardinals have the talent to compete with any of those teams in a seven-game series. Paul Goldschmidt is having an MVP season while Nolan Arenado is not far behind. Paul DeJong has been resurgent since coming up from Triple-A, Dylan Carlson and Tommy Edman have had strong seasons. The pitching staff, especially Adam Wainwright and Miles Mikolas, have had brilliant seasons while Jordan Montgomery and Jose Quintana look like very good trade deadline acquisitions.

Of course, there are over 40 games to play. The Cardinals lead the Central by two games. The Brewers can get hot or the Cardinals can get cold. Anything can happen. But with such a talented roster that appears to be riding high from a productive trade deadline, they appear ready to take control of the division.

It’s already begun to happen. The question is: will it continue? And if so, just how far can they go?