The Los Angeles Dodgers entered baseball’s trade-deadline day as the betting favorites to win the World Series. Their blockbuster trade to land both ace starter Max Scherzer and shortstop Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals only helped matters.
From Friday morning to Friday evening, the Dodgers’ odds to win the World Series this fall shortened from +375 to +300 at BetMGM and from +320 to +275 at DraftKings.
The Dodgers continue to be sportsbooks’ favorites despite the fact that they still are not winning their own division. The San Francisco Giants led Los Angeles by three games in the National League West before Friday’s play. The Giants recently took two games from the Dodgers in a three-game series.
And San Francisco added its own big name at the deadline: Chicago Cubs star third baseman Kris Bryant, the former NL MVP.
The Giants had +1200 title odds at BetMGM earlier in the week and saw them improve accordingly to +1000 after the deadline. At DraftKings, the Giants went from +1400 on Friday morning to +1200 post-Bryant trade.
Elsewhere in the same division, the San Diego Padres missed out on their reported interest in Scherzer but still landed Cubs outfielder Jake Marisnick and Nationals reliever Daniel Hudson after adding Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Adam Frazier last weekend.
The Padres’ action, in turn, was rather mixed. At BetMGM, they moved to +750 after being at +900 earlier in the week. But DraftKings shows San Diego at longer odds — +1000 — to win than it was when the day began — +900.
The New York Mets did not see their odds change at DraftKings despite their deal to land shortstop Javier Baez from the Cubs. They remained +850 there, still good for the fourth-shortest odds to win it all, and stood at +1000 at BetMGM.
In the American League, the Chicago White Sox improved from +750 to +650 at DraftKings and from +700 to +650 at BetMGM after adding Cubs closer Craig Kimbrel.
The Houston Astros were quieter, adding only relief pitchers in the past several days, including the Mariners’ Kendall Graveman. Their odds went from +475 to +450 at BetMGM and stayed pat at +600 at DraftKings.
The New York Yankees, though third place in their division, went all-in on trying to win it all this season and added Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo, Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo and Los Angeles Angels starter Andrew Heaney.
Those moves were good enough to boost the Yankees from +2500 to +1700 at BetMGM for the week. Curiously, according to DraftKings, the Yankees had +1700 World Series odds both before Friday’s trade action and after. But that may be the case because the reports of both Gallo and Rizzo heading to the Bronx first surfaced 24 hours earlier or more.
Spare a thought for the trade deadline sellers, who know there is a great rebuild in front of them. The Nationals’ odds doubled from +20000 to +40000 at DraftKings after dealing away Scherzer, Turner, Hudson, left-handed starter Jon Lester, catcher Yan Gomes, infielder Josh Harrison and reliever Brad Hand to various teams.
And the Cubs, who sold off many fan favorites who helped them break a 108-year drought to win the 2016 World Series, moved from +13000 at DraftKings to +20000.
–Field Level Media