National League Breakdown: Division Winners & Awards Predictions
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 875 Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eno and DVR discuss another injury to the Atlanta rotation with Spencer Strider going on the IL with an oblique injury before taking a spin through the National League to predict division winners, Wild Card teams, and award winners for the 2026 MLB season.
Rundown
0:39 Spencer Strider: Placed on IL with Oblique Injury
5:12 NL East Breakdown
18:34 NL Central Breakdown
40:04 NL West Breakdown
59:00 NL Rookie of the Year Predictions
1:01:25 NL Cy Young Award Predictions
1:04:52 NL MVP Predictions
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Follow DVR on Bluesky: @DVR.bsky.social
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
Editor: Jason Potere
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on Rates and Barrels, we break down the National League, picking division winners, wild cards, and making our awards predictions. |
| 0:06.7 | Let's go. |
| 0:15.1 | Welcome to Rates and Barrels. It is Tuesday, March 24th. |
| 0:20.1 | Derek Van Riper here with Eno Saris. |
| 0:22.9 | Lots to get to on this episode, breaking down each division in the NL, making some regular predictions. |
| 0:28.6 | Bold predictions were in the episode just before this one, depending on where you listen and watch this show. |
| 0:34.5 | Let's get to some news you should know before we get to our NL East |
| 0:37.6 | breakdown. Eno, you made a bold prediction that the Atlanta Braves would not make the playoffs |
| 0:42.4 | again in 2026, and it's because of the injuries that are piling up, and we didn't even know |
| 0:47.3 | this one was a problem. Spencer Strider is opening the season on the IL with an oblique |
| 0:52.9 | injury. Yeah, it's unfortunate. |
| 0:55.7 | You know, his Vilo hasn't quite gotten back. |
| 0:58.6 | His shapes haven't quite gotten back to where he used to be in terms of when he was |
| 1:03.6 | that young stud that was just blown away the league. |
| 1:07.1 | And now we have an injury that reminds us that even once somebody fixes their elbow with Tommy John surgery, there are still other ways they can hurt themselves. |
| 1:19.8 | I mean, it's sort of the Tyler Glass Now thing. |
| 1:23.4 | It's like, I know what now? |
| 1:24.7 | What hurts now? |
| 1:26.4 | I think there was one. One of my favorites was, I mean, general body soreness is one of my favorites. |
| 1:33.4 | It's just like, I don't feel good. |
| 1:37.5 | But I think there was a strained butt once for Carl Pavano that that I don't know just made me yeah straight |
| 1:47.1 | glute would be the technical term dr. Rino I'm dr.ino the replacement it looks like |
... |
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