Baseball is officially back Friday with the start of Spring Training games, as the Texas Rangers play the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Mariners play the San Diego Padres in Cactus League play.
That makes now a good time to take a look at World Series title odds before any potential injuries and roster cuts.
At BetMGM, the Houston Astros are slight favorites to win it all at +650, even after losing Justin Verlander to the New York Mets. Another title would make Houston the first team since the 1999-2000 New York Yankees to repeat. But the gap between Houston and the next set of teams isn’t large.
The Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers each have +750 odds to win the World Series, making them the co-National League favorites. The Yankees also have +750 odds as Houston’s closest competition in the American League.
After those four, the odds are dominated by NL teams, with Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres each coming in at +1000, followed closely by the Philadelphia Phillies at +1400. The Toronto Blue Jays (+1400), Seattle Mariners (+1600) and St. Louis Cardinals (+2000) round out the top 10.
With five NL teams in the top eight, the -115 odds of a team from that league winning the World Series are is slightly better than the AL’s -105 odds.
Here’s how the rest of the majors stacks up:
- Chicago White Sox / Cleveland Guardians / Tampa Bay Rays (+2500)
- Los Angeles Angels / Milwaukee Brewers / Minnesota Twins (+4000)
- San Francisco Giants / Texas Rangers (+5000)
- Boston Red Sox (+6000)
- Baltimore Orioles (+6600)
- Chicago Cubs (+8000)
- Miami Marlins (+10000)
- Arizona Diamondbacks / Detroit Tigers (+12500)
- Kansas City Royals (+15000)
- Colorado Rockies / Pittsburgh Pirates (+20000)
- Cincinnati Reds (+25000)
- Oakland Athletics / Washington Nationals (+50000)