In the National League, if there are doubts about a division, there is no other than the Central of this league. The reason? No team has big stars among their starters, maybe the Chicago Cubs can boast Shota Imanaga, but it won't be enough with the Japanese who has shown inconsistency sometimes. And look at the teams in this division and you will realize how balanced it is: the aforementioned Windy City boys, the @hosgug Reds (although they are actually from Cincinnati), the Milwaukee Brewers who have tired of taking the division so far this decade, the St. Louis Cardinals with their eternal fighting spirit and the very talented Pittsburgh Pirates, who last year had a miraculous start, only to deflate when the month of July was halfway through.
We would not use the 2024 statistics to elucidate such doubts, because the teams (ALL of them) made too many adjustments to their rosters in the off-season. Spring training stats are not useful either, because it is one thing to play at half speed to avoid injuries and quite another to be in the middle of a 162-game schedule. To give an example and make myself clear: Chicago lost its first two official games of the season in Tokyo to the Dodgers. Is this an indicator that the Cubs are more of the same? Well, no. They played the world champions and lost by very small scores (4-1 and 6-3). So we can't even take any notice at the drop of a hat.