The Los Angeles Dodgers open the 2022 season on Friday, April 8, in Denver against the Colorado Rockies. With a string of nine straight playoff appearances, the team enters the MLB season as the betting favorite to win the World Series.
What do the Dodgers’ odds look like, and where are the opportunities for a baseball bettor with the club this season?
Manager Dave Roberts, feeling confident after receiving a contract extension, has guaranteed the Dodgers will win the World Series this season. But guarantees are like Twitter rants: easy to make and usually without consequences in real life.
The Dodgers are once again loaded with talent, with a roster that should propel the Big Blue Wrecking Crew to contention for the National League flag.
But one thing is for sure about baseball, it is unpredictable. Who would have thought before last season that L.A. would win 106 games and finish in second place in the NL West?
Here’s a roundup of the best Dodgers betting options for the 2022 MLB season.
Will The Dodgers Win The World Series?
Each of the major sportsbooks lists the Dodgers as the favorites to win the World Series. BetMGM has the Dodgers at +500, while FanDuel has them shorter at +470, and DraftKings has L.A. at +475.
MLB has added a sixth playoff team in each league, with the top two teams getting a first-round bye. That could be good or bad. Five times since 2006, a team has clinched a playoff series early and gotten five days or more off and proceeded to lose the next series.
The Dodgers are competing in a deep division, with the 107-win Giants and the talented Padres no slouches. Winning should never be taken for granted, and while L.A. has added punch to its roster, there’s a reason the books have them at +470 to +500 to win it all: it’s hard to win a World Series. At minimum, the Dodgers will have three postseason series to navigate to win the Fall Classic, and as we saw last October when the Braves beat them in the NLCS, anything can happen.
Steer clear of NL West Division futures bets: Caesars has L.A. at -225 to win the division. All the books have similar odds. The same sportsbook has the Dodgers at +240 to win the NL pennant.
Dodgers Season Wins Total Bets
Every sportsbook has the Dodgers at the top of their season wins total oddsboards. FanDuel has the Dodgers at 99.5 wins.
Will the Dodgers get to 100 wins in 2022? They won 106 last season but now face better competition in their own league, and their roster has been shuffled.
Players Who Left the Dodgers: Corey Seager, Max Scherzer, Kenley Jansen, Albert Pujols.
Players Who Joined the Dodgers: Freddie Freeman, Trea Turner, Kevin Pillar
Much is being made of the Dodgers lineup, which now features Freeman, one of baseballs best sluggers. But six of the position players slated to get a lot of playing time are past their 30th birthday, and Freeman saw his slugging percentage drop almost 50 points in 2021 compared to his most recent full season.
Clayton Kershaw is 34 years old and hasn’t thrown as many as 180 innings in a season since 2015. Starter Dustin May is still recovering from surgery to his shoulder, and 35-year old David Price is being counted on. This isn’t a deep (or very healthy) rotation. And last season only two starters pitched as many as 125 innings. What happens if pitchers get hurt or are inconsistent, like pitchers usually are?
TIP: Go ‘under’ the Dodgers wins total
Dodgers Player Futures Bets
National League MVP Award Winner
Several Dodgers have odds for winning the NL MVP Award:
- Freddie Freeman +900
- Mookie Betts +900
- Trea Turner +1500
- Max Muncy +5000
- Justin Turner +7500
- Walker Buehler +10000
- Cody Bellinger +10000
- Will Smith +10000
- Chris Taylor +15000
- Gavin Lux +25000
These odds are from Caesars Sportsbook as of March 29.
Freeman will hit behind Betts, and Muncy will hit behind Freeman, and Turner and Turner will hit behind them. Most likely that’s how Roberts will construct his lineup. This means Freddie, Muncy, and the Turners will drive in oodles of runs. But MVP voters aren’t as enamored with RBI as they used to be.
I like Muncy to benefit from the addition of Freeman to the lineup. But if I was going to take a flyer at one of the L.A. batters to win the MVP in ’22, I’d pick Bellinger at 10o-to-1 odds. He’s 26 years old, the age where ballplayers usually have that career year, and Bellinger is coming off two dreadful seasons. A rebound is probable. If Bellinger wins the MVP Award, your $100 bet would get you a nifty $10,000. You know what they say: ten thousand here, ten thousand there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money. Even with inflation.
TIP: Max Muncy is +5000 to lead the majors in RBI (via Caesars Sportsbook as of March 29).
Pitching Wins And Awards
Predicting pitcher wins is like forecasting weather in London: who the heck knows what you’ll get. Walker Buehler is +700 (BetRivers) to lead the majors in wins, but bullpens, late rallies, pitch counts, and a short spring training could mean low wins totals, even for the best pitchers in the game.
Don’t bet on pitcher awards and win totals. Not this far out.
Also read: NL East Odds| AL East odds | AL Central Betting preview
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