Major Movement in AL and NL Rookie of the Year Odds (Ricky Tiedmann and Yuki Matsui S

With the Dodgers and Padres kicking off spring training games on Thursday, we'll soon have actual baseball to judge the 2024 rookie crop on.

It's spring baseball and it doesn't count in the standings, but it counts for players trying to make teams and rookies jockeying for position in the Rookie of the Year Odds.

Sometimes you don't even need games, but rather simply workouts and reports that jump-start the narrative around a player and that's the case in the last week as two players have improved their odds by a third before the first spring game even started.

They're still long shots for sure, but if you're a bettor who likes to take a flyer on futures these are two to keep an eye on moving forward as their odds have shrunk over the last week.

Tiedmann, the Blue Jays 3rd round pick in 2021 out of Golden West College has just 122.2 minor league innings under his belt and just 4 innings above the AA level, but has impressed in Blue Jays camp before Toronto has played a spring game.

Tiedmann is reportedly vying for a spot on the Blue Jays opening day roster, which given his lack of professional experience, may be a long shot, but he has been rewarded with the start in Toronto's spring opener on Saturday.

If Tiedmann continues to impress, it'll be an interesting follow through the spring and when the Blue Jays final cuts are made.

Tiedmann likely gets optioned for additional seasoning in AAA, but many believe he'll be in The Show this year, and if the Blue Jays are contending it will add to his narrative and potential Rookie of The Year candidacy.

Even before his stellar debut on Thursday against the Los Angeles Dodgers where he struck out the side in his only inning, Matsui's Rookie of the Year Odds jumped.

Yes, it was the first game of the spring and yes, the game was already out of hand, but the three Dodgers all went down swinging without one pitch being called a ball.

The 28-year-old, Matsui has spent 10 years in the Nippon Baseball League, accumulating a 2.43 ERA and 236 saves.

Standing 5'8 and around 170 pounds, Matsui is not the most intimidating presence on the mound. At least not until the pitch is thrown.

Unlike Tiedmann, Matsui is assured of being on the MLB roster on opening day, having signed a 5-year $28,000,000 deal with the Padres.

The Padres are expected to finish a distant third in the NL West, but that also means that Matsui will likely get plenty of leeway in their bullpen, not to mention screen time as they tackle the behemoth that is the Dodgers.

Good players sometimes get lost in San Diego, but Matsui making the strongest first impression possible will only help his odds.

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.