It’s been a decade since a team from a Central division won the World Series — and it happened in consecutive years, with the Kansas City Royals (AL) claiming the 2015 title and Chicago Cubs (NL) winning the 2016 Series. But might that drought be coming to an end?
If MLB Pipeline’s newly updated Top 100 Prospects list is any indication, that may be the case, because MLB’s Central divisions are loaded with high-end prospect talent like nowhere else.
We’ve already broken down our preseason 2026 rankings a number of ways, and now turn our attention to how the divisions stack up. Of course, it’s worth noting that Top 100 prospects are not the same as farm rankings. Depth of talent is imperative. But this is one interesting way of looking at top-end talent that’s nearing the Majors and how its distributed across the sport.
Just like the last year and the year prior, the NL Central holds at least a share of the most Top 100 prospects among MLB’s six divisions. But this year, the AL Central is right there, too, as both divisions sport 21 top prospects each.
The NL East and AL East are also neck-and-neck in the middle of the pack, while the two west divisions lag a little behind:
Top 100 Prospects breakdown by division:
NL Central: 21
AL Central: 21
NL East: 18
AL East: 17
AL West: 12
NL West: 11
The NL East is the biggest riser, going from 14 to 18, and that’s even after the Mets traded Jett Williams (No. 51) and Brandon Sproat (No. 100) to the Brewers this week. The Mets still have four players who weren’t on this list a year ago — Nolan McLean (No. 6), Carson Benge (No. 16), Jonah Tong (No. 48) and A.J. Ewing (No. 97). The Marlins also have four new names on the list, headlined by recently-acquired outfielder Owen Caissie (No. 42).
Even though the NL Central has routinely ranked at or near the top of this breakdown for several years now, we’ve still seen a major shift in the accumulation of prospect talent in a short time frame. This is totally normal and expected, given the way player development cycles and competitive windows tend to work. As recently as two years ago, the NL West sported 18 Top 100 prospects — third most among divisions. This year, that number plunged to 11, with the West ranking sixth out of six divisions. During those two years, though, talent was largely accumulated at the big league level, as the Dodgers won back-to-back World Series titles.
The best division at replenishing talent lately is the AL East, which went from 20 top prospects in 2024 down to 14 last year. It’s propped back up to a healthy 17 this year. The AL Central, meanwhile, remains firm at 21 after rising from 15 to 22 last year.
Beyond just the sheer quantity of top-end prospects, we can also assess quality by grading players on Prospect Points. In this basic system, the No. 1 prospect is worth 100 points, the No. 2 prospect is worth 99 points and so on. Here’s how the divisions shake out with their top prospects and rankings in parentheses.
By this measure, the NL East has pulled significantly ahead of the AL East despite having only one more top prospect. That’s because the NL East sports six of the Top 30 overall prospects and 10 of the top 50, while the AL East has only three of the top 30 and six of the top 50.
This lens also reinforces the Central divisions’ overall current dominance. Last year, four of the seven teams with five or more Top 100 prospects hailed from Central divisions. This year, that number is five of eight.
We’ve taken a look at how the divisions compare to each other, but what about the leagues? They are remarkably even, with exactly 50 prospects apiece in the NL and in the AL, though the NL holds the slight edge in prospect points (NL: 2,628, AL: 2,422).
It’s in the composition — which types of prospects each division is made up of — where the differences begin to become more apparent.
AL East: 10 hitters (422 points), 7 pitchers (290 points)
AL Central: 18 hitters (943), 3 pitchers (87)
AL West: 7 hitters (408), 5 pitchers (272)
NL East: 9 hitters (485), 9 pitchers (479)
NL Central: 14 hitters (794), 7 pitchers (293)
NL West: 10 hitters (564), 1 pitcher (13)
The leagues are much more evenly diversified than they were a year ago. Last year, the AL had significantly more hitting prospects than the NL (41 to 33) and almost twice the amount of associated prospect points (2,354 vs. 1,431). This year, the AL still holds a slight advantage in hitting prospects, 35 to 33. Even with that deficit, the NL leads in hitting prospect points, 1,843 to 1,773.
The results are similar are the pitching side, with the NL holding a slight 17-15 advantage in total prospects and a 735-649 edge in pitching prospect points.
