MLB Futures Predictions for MVP, Cy Young
Spring Training is officially underway for Major League Baseball. So, naturally, it’s time to get way ahead of ourselves and bet on the potential winner or two for baseball’s biggest regular season awards.
Today, we have betting odds on the AL and NL MVP as well as the Cy Young Award winner for each league.
As you might expect, names like Spencer Strider and Gerrit Cole are at the top of the Cy Young lists. There is one name that is absent from those odds. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani will not be pitching this season.
He will be a designated hitter. That brings us to the odds for MVP. Ohtani isn’t the betting favorite for National League MVP. That honor goes to last year’s winner of the award, the Atlanta Braves’ Ronald Acuna.
Doc’s Sports offers MLB expert picks for every game on our baseball predictions page.
AL MVP Winner
Aaron Judge: +550
Juan Soto: +600
Corey Seager: +800
Yordan Alvarez: +900
Julio Rodriguez: +1000
Kyle Tucker: +1600
The Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez is a popular play among bettors to win the American League MVP in 2024. I understand it. However, I can’t take my eyes off Aaron Judge. The towering New York Yankee has already won this award, and if it weren’t for an injury and the aforementioned Ohtani, Judge could very well be a 3-time defending AL MVP.
He is coming off of what some will call a disappointing season that ended in injury for him. I disagree. It was a disappointing year for the Yankees.
Did he hit 62 home runs with over 130 RBIs?
No. That was the year before when he was healthy and had someone hitting behind him. Last season, that was missing. Insert the second name on this list, Juan Soto. He is one of the most patient hitters in the game and is expected to be hitting third while Judge bats second in the batting order.
This means even more at-bats for the big guy. Watch out for him to hit another 60 home runs in 2024.
Pick: Aaron Judge (+550)
NL MVP Winner
Ronald Acuna: +375
Shohei Ohtani: +500
Mookie Betts: +675
Fernando Tatis Jr.: +900
Freddie Freeman: +1000
Bryce Harper: +1200
Corbin Carroll: +2000
Wow, the Los Angeles Dodgers have three players in the top five of our betting odds to win the National League MVP! It all makes sense now how they seemed so chill about being swept early in the playoffs by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
I thought it was just the cool of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, but they knew all along that Ohtani was coming to town. There is another new Dodger from Japan that we will get to in a minute.
Ronald Acuna is my guy as a Braves fan but he is so explosive, and he just had such an incredible year in 2023. I would love to see a repeat performance of his record-setting 40/70 season, but I don't think it's in the cards.
I’m not sure how we pick a Dodger here, though. I would imagine the three of them cancelling one another out to a degree.
Corbin Carroll is much better in the field than Acuna, he can match him or better on the basepaths, and we can expect more development from the less experienced guy as well. People aren’t expecting much from Arizona in 2024, so I can see Carroll’s elite play causing an even bigger splash.
Pick: Corbin Carroll (+2000)
AL Cy Young Winner
Gerrit Cole: +500
Kevin Gausman: +700
Framber Valdez: +800
Grayson Rodriguez: +900
Pablo Lopez: +1000
Corbin Burnes: +1000
Could we see a repeat winner for the AL Cy Young Award in 2024?
It is quite possible. Cole received every single first-place vote in the balloting last season, and there aren't a lot of new challengers for the 33-year-old Yankee right-hander.
There is one, though, that stands out to me. The brand new Baltimore Oriole, Corbin Burnes, has elite stuff and can compete with any starting pitcher in the league. The former Brewer is still in his 20s and 5 years younger than his new division rival, Cole.
Pick: Corbin Burnes (+1000)
NL Cy Young Winner
Spencer Strider: +450
Zack Wheeler: +700
Logan Webb: +900
Zac Gallen: +1000
Yoshinobu Yamamoto: +1100
Max Fried: +1200
Aaron Nola: +1600
Predicting the 2024 NL Cy Young Award winner can be very easy or we could complicate this until our heads explode.
The betting favorite, Strider, is a larger favorite than any we have discussed today coming in at (+450). He has had just two years in the league but led the Majors in strikeouts in both of those seasons.
Writers were ready to give him the Cy Young last season, but he had a couple of questionable performances down the stretch that led to the less fashionable pick, Blake Snell.
Strider's teammate Max Fried has enough talent and experience, at this point to make a run at the award.
I am going with the dark horse, however. The Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto is expected to bring what Ohtani could have from the mound and even more. The only reason we are getting such incredible value on him now is because he has yet to prove himself.
In such an open field this early in the season, I will take another Japanese superstar to win the Cy Young in his first year in the league.
Pick: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (+1100)
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