Cardinals division rival officially eliminated from postseason contention

In not-so-shocking news, a prime St. Louis Cardinals division rival — the Chicago Cubs — have been eliminated from postseason contention.

Entering the regular season, the National League Central was widely viewed as a two-team race between the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals. The ultimate winner was anyone’s guess — I predicted the Cardinals — while many others viewed the Brewers as the favorites to repeat as division champs.

But one team that lingered as a long shot was the Chicago Cubs, especially after signing Seiya Suzuki and Marcus Stroman this past offseason. They have always been more likely to compete in 2023 or 2024, but the addition of both players made them at least a threat to play spoiler to the Cardinals and Brewers.

Neither team has to worry about that scenario, as the Cubs have officially been eliminated from postseason contention. Really, this has been obvious for some time. The Cubs are 62-84 and 24 games behind the Cardinals (87-61) and 16 games behind the Brewers (78-68). It’s just now mathematically impossible for the Cubs to catch St. Louis.

The Cubs, however, should be viewed as a threat going forward. They have solid young talent on the team, headlined by Suzuki, and are expected to be aggressive spenders this winter, having been connected to star shortstop Trea Turner and others already during the season. Whether that comes to fruition remains to be seen, but they will be active in free agency, and could have a drastically different looking roster come spring training 2023.

For now, however, the Cardinals are the runaway favorites to win the Central. They are clicking on all cylinders and have the star power with Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt that’s capable of leading them on a World Series run.

They now (officially) have one less team to worry about in the division, though that’s been obvious for some time.