Since 2020, Brewers Have Led NL Central 169 Days Longer Than Other 4 Teams Combined

It’s no secret that the Brewers have had a stranglehold on the NL Central over the last few years, but their divisional dominance is nearly unrivaled across baseball in that time. Since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Theo Epstein’s last as president of baseball operations on the North Side and the last time the Cubs got a taste of the playoffs, Milwaukee has led the Central for 468 days. That’s 169 more days than the Cardinals (115), Cubs (92), Pirates, and Reds (both 46) combined.

Hell, that massive gap between the Brewers and their aggregated rivals is 54 more days than the second-place Cards. All due respect to what they’ve done north of the Cheddar Curtain, but that’s a damning indictment of Cubs management. Want to make it even more damning? Of their 92 division-leading days in the last five years, 56 came in that truncated campaign.

For those who aren’t terribly good at the maths, that means Jed Hoyer’s four-year tenure has seen his team in first place for a total of 36 days. That is highly upsetting and frustrating as a fan of both the Cubs and Wu-Tang Clan. It looks even worse to say the Cubs have only led the NL Central an average of nine days per season with Hoyer at the helm. Even if we grant ample allowance for budgetary issues that are largely out of his control, it’s hard to find much grace.

number of days each MLB team has led their division since 2020 pic.twitter.com/69HtCVhVrd

— BrooksGate (@Brooks_Gate) January 31, 2025

Thing is, it actually looks much worse when you consider how the Cubs payroll stacks up against those of their divisional peers over the sample in question. Their roughly $916 million committed to player personnel is almost $60 million more than the Cardinals ($860M) and nearly 60% greater than what the Brewers have spent ($580M). The Reds ($574M) are right there with the Crew, while the Pirates have spent about as much over the last half-decade ($327M) as the Dodgers will in 2025 alone.

It would be one thing if we were talking about an NFL-like structure in which teams were required to spend at the same level. There might also be some sort of justification if the Cubs had undergone another rebuild similar to the one they went through when Hoyer and Epstein first got to town. Instead, they’ve failed to sew anything up despite grossly outspending their foes to the north in a perpetual cycle of needle-threading.

How is that even possible? You know what, don’t answer that.