Major League Baseball's 2019 regular season is roughly a third of the way through, and in some regards it's beginning to feel like the early 2000s. Not just because the ball is flying out of the park left and right, but because the Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics are among the teams who have seen their World Series odds improve the most here in the past couple weeks.
Here's a look at the latest from the oddsmakers in Vegas.
| TEAM | WORLD SERIES ODDS |
|---|---|
Houston Astros | 4/1 |
Los Angeles Dodgers | 4/1 |
New York Yankees | 5/1 |
Minnesota Twins | 7/1 |
Chicago Cubs | 10/1 |
Boston Red Sox | 12/1 |
Philadelphia Phillies | 12/1 |
Milwaukee Brewers | 14/1 |
Atlanta Braves | 16/1 |
St. Louis Cardinals | 20/1 |
Tampa Bay Rays | 20/1 |
Cleveland Indians | 25/1 |
Arizona Diamondbacks | 40/1 |
Oakland Athletics | 40/1 |
New York Mets | 50/1 |
San Diego Padres | 50/1 |
Washington Nationals | 60/1 |
Cincinnati Reds | 100/1 |
Colorado Rockies | 100/1 |
Pittsburgh Pirates | 100/1 |
Los Angeles Angels | 200/1 |
Texas Rangers | 200/1 |
Chicago White Sox | 300/1 |
San Francisco Giants | 500/1 |
Seattle Mariners | 1,000/1 |
Toronto Blue Jays | 1,000/1 |
Detroit Tigers | 2,000/1 |
Baltimore Orioles | 5,000/1 |
Kansas City Royals | 5,000/1 |
Miami Marlins | 5,000/1 |
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Those interested can check out Westgate's full odds outlay over at Sportsline, where they do all sorts of things with odds and gambling-related content. Here, for our purposes, we're going to highlight three notable storylines.
1. Twins are in the middle of the superteams
That the Twins have improved their World Series odds to 7/1 shouldn't be a surprise: most teams with 10-game division leads prior to June should be viewed with optimism.
Still, it's probably a little jarring to realize they have the fourth-best odds in baseball of winning the title, given it was less than two months ago they were widely picked (including by us) to finish second in a weak division. Now, they're in company with the so-called superteams.
Credit the Twins for an aggressive offseason -- during which they signed Nelson Cruz, Jonathan Schoop, and C.J. Cron, among others -- and for giving the Cleveland Indians plenty to regret. There's no telling how the next few months will play out, but Minnesota has positioned itself for a legitimate run to the postseason -- one that, who knows, may indeed result in a title.
2. A's keep charging
Relative to the Twins and the other best teams in the game, the A's have just modest World Series odds, at 40/1. That's a huge leap from when they were at 100/1 here recently.
Such an ascent is to be expected given the A's have won their last 10 completed games. Do note that we wrote "completed" -- the A's technically have a suspended game, in which they lead the Detroit Tigers 5-3 in the seventh inning, that will dictate whether their current streak is of the seven-game variety or longer. (Only in baseball, huh?)
Whatever the case, the A's are now tied for the second wild-card spot -- and their odds reflect that.
3. Dodgers, Astros remain World Series favorites
For as much as the Twins and A's are making this feel like the early '00s, the ending of the season might cause us to think about 2017. That's because the two teams with the best odds (each 4/1) of winning the World Series are the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros.
The Dodgers and Astros, of course, squared off in 2017, with Houston winning the title in seven games. Predicting a rematch seems reasonable enough, as you can argue those are the teams with the easiest paths to the postseason. The Dodgers, for their part, have an eight-game division lead, while the Astros have a 6 1/2-game lead that's likely to grow as the year passes.
The New York Yankees (5/1), Twins (7/1), and Chicago Cubs (10/1) round out the top five.
