Expected NL Central lineups for the 2025 season

A look at how the lineup for each NL Central team is shaping up right now.

Dec 24, 2024

We are a couple of months into the offseason, and most teams have made some moves to either improve their roster or replace players they have lost.

With some notable players jumping to another division and one of the better players in all of baseball joining it, I wanted to review how each team’s lineup is shaping up via the RosterResource tool on FanGraphs.

Milwaukee Brewers

RF - Jackson Churio
DH - Christian Yelich
C - William Contreras
CF - Garrett Mitchell
LF - Sal Frelick
1B - Rhys Hoskins
2B - Brice Turang
SS - Joey Ortiz
3B - Oliver Dunn

The notable loss is Willy Adames, who signed with the San Francisco Giants this offseason. Acquiring Caleb Durbin won’t fully replace him, but it should help. The Brewers have several options as far as the lineup goes.

Joey Ortiz could slide back to short after playing third last year. Brice Turang won the Gold Glove at second base this season, so there has been talk of sliding him to shortstop and having Durbin play second.

Other than that, they return everyone from their 93-win team.

Chicago Cubs

LF - Ian Happ
RF - Kyle Tucker
DH - Seiya Suzuki
1B - Michael Busch
SS - Dansby Swanson
2B - Nico Hoerner
CF - Pete Crow-Armstrong
3B - Matt Shaw
C - Miguel Amaya

The Cubs basically turned Christopher Morel into Kyle Tucker, which is an insane thought. Morel got shipped to Tampa Bay for Isaac Paredes, who the Cubs eventually traded to Houston for Tucker. They also moved Cody Bellinger to recoup some money.

Paredes getting traded opens up third base for Top-100 prospect Matt Shaw. There was some talk of the Cubs trying to move Seiya Suzuki as well. This lineup gets even more of a boost if Pete Crow-Armstrong takes a step forward offensively. He’ll provide elite defense last year while posting a wRC+ of 87.

Cincinnati Reds

CF - TJ Freidl
SS - Elly De La Cruz
2B - Matt McLain
C - Tyler Stephenson
3B - Jeimer Candelario
1B - Spencer Steer
RF - Jake Fraley
DH - Christian Encarnacion-Strand
LF - Will Benson

The big addition in the Reds lineup will be the return of Matt McLain, who missed the entire 2024 season with an injury. There will be a notable name that will be missing, as Jonathan India was traded to the Kansas City Royals for Brady Singer.

St. Louis Cardinals

SS - Masyn Winn
DH - Alec Burleson
1B - Wilson Contreras
3B - Nolan Arenado
2B - Brendan Donovan
LF - Lars Nootbaar
RF - Jordan Walker
C - Ivan Herrera
CF - Victor Scott II

This one could change at any moment, as the Cardinals continue to shop Nolan Arenado. That’d make it both corner infield positions they’d be breaking in ‘new’ players at. I say ‘new’ because Wilson Contreras is sliding to first base from catcher to try and keep him healthy.

Pittsburgh Pirates

SS - Isiah Kiner-Falefa
LF - Bryan Reynolds
CF - Oneil Cruz
DH - Andrew McCutchen
C - Joey Bart
1B - Spencer Horwitz
2B - Nick Gonzales
3B - Ke’Bryan Hayes
RF - Joshua Palacios

Andrew McCutchen is a free agent ‘addition’ but also the worst kept secret. If he was going to play in 2025, it was always going to be for the Pirates.

The ‘big’ move so far in the lineup has been acquiring Spencer Horwitz from the Cleveland Guardians. He hit 12 home runs in 97 games played last season. There are several options to play right field but none that have really done anything to stand out above the rest.

That could be the final piece that they look to add before the end of the season.

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