Not even Nostradamus could’ve predicted how much the NL East favorite would flip flop, going from the New York Mets to the Atlanta Braves and now to the Philadelphia Phillies. Actually, scratch that, he might’ve foresaw the Mets being, well, the Mets. Unfortunately, our staff didn’t.They did, however, foresee that the Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox would make believers of all of us, and that Los Angeles Angels would try for 100 losses.Welcome to Version 3.0 of our season predictions. We’ll be revisiting these predictions at multiple intervals before October, and while the questions will stay the same, the answers will undoubtedly evolve.Here’s our expectations for how the remainder of the 2026 season will shake out, with expert analysis and critiques from MLB senior writers Tim Britton and Andy McCullough, along with MLB staff writer Johnny Flores Jr.Note: Tables display the percentage of votes received each month. You can find our season predictions from March here and May here. All stats are through the end of play on Sunday unless otherwise noted.Tim Britton: Another poll, another runaway winner in the NL East — just a different one each time. The East is the only remaining interesting division in the senior circuit, with three teams within a handful of games.Andy McCullough: Have we really lost all faith in the Braves? I suppose we have. The Phillies went 36-19 in May and June, and entered the break only a game back in the East. Don Mattingly looks like the favorite to win NL Manager of the Year. I’d love to know how many prior MOYs started the season as the bench coach.Johnny Flores Jr.: There was maybe a three-week period where it looked like the Cubs could wrestle the NL Central out of Bernie Brewer's hands. Milwaukee, like Los Angeles, however, has become inevitable, its ownership of yet another division crown all but a formality.Britton: The Padres came back to earth even harder than I thought they might, and that’s opened the door elsewhere in the NL. We all expected that race for the last playoff spot to be between Miami and Pittsburgh, right? Both are darlings of third-order win percentage, but I went with the Pirates for now because I think they’ll act with more urgency at the trade deadline.McCullough: This will sound condescending, but whatever: the Marlins may be for real. Their run differential matches their record. They play with energy and enthusiasm. Otto Lopez might win the batting title. Miami might not be able to replicate its 20-6 record in June, but that wasn’t a fluke.Flores Jr.: It was hard for me to get behind the Pirates given how not-Paul Skenes the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner has looked. Instead, I went with the Marlins, a club that should've had several more All-Stars in Philadelphia.Britton: Am I crazy for sticking with the Tigers? They’ve been the best team in this division since Tarik Skubal returned — good enough to potentially convince the front office to hold on to him and make one more run in the Central.McCullough: The rules insist that some team must win the American League Central, and recent history suggests that team will be the Guardians. But the White Sox, only two years removed from a 121-loss season, are entering the second half with the hope of playing October baseball. That is a tremendous step forward for the franchise.Flores Jr.: Not only do those rules insist that some team wins the Central, but some team also needs to win the West, too. Whereas the Central race is a compelling battle between the upstart White Sox and the yearly puzzle of "Guards Ball," the West is a battle of hot potato among teams that simply can't go a few games without getting in their own way. It's opened up a small lane for the Astros to potentially get the last laugh in all this, something that seemed improbable back in April.Britton: For a long time, I advocated that college football should have an amorphous postseason bracket: Some years, you only needed two teams at the end, other years you’d need a six-team bracket. Make it up as you go. The point is, can the AL adopt that this season? Getting to a fifth playoff team is tough enough. But six? So much of it comes down to who buys into their team’s chances at the deadline.McCullough: Break up the Red Sox! That, of course, looked like the plan as recently as a month ago, when the team was puttering around in last place in the American League East. Boston figured to be a seller at the deadline. But a nine-game winning streak heading into the break placed the team a half-game back in the morass of mediocrity known as the AL Wild Card race.