Texas Rangers To Win American League (+1200)
With the Super Bowl now in the rearview mirror, we can start to turn our attention away from football for a while, as the 2025 MLB season is just around the corner. Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to Spring Training before you know it, and now is the time to look at the MLB futures market to see if we can find any value. There are plenty of teams that are worth investing in, and I’m going to be sharing some of the future bets I have already placed. I started yesterday with the Detroit Tigers to win the American League, and I also bet the Rangers at this 12/1 number on MGM.
Last season, Texas had a World Series hangover type of season, failing to even make the postseason after winning it all in 2023. This is actually more common than you might think in sports, so I really wasn’t shocked at all when they performed as poorly as they did. Injuries had a lot to do with it, but they also just didn’t play up to snuff to compete in a very competitive AL West division that featured the Mariners and Astros as well. Looking at this team, there is reason to think that they can regain their championship form in 2025.
Despite the poor season, this was and still is a very talented baseball team that is loaded to the brim with big bats and arms. If you know me and how I bet on baseball, I place a lot of stock in pitching and bullpen performance, as I believe that is the key to consistently winning games. At face value, I would have the Rangers as a top-10 pitching rotation in baseball, with the potential to reach inside the top-5 as the season goes along. Some good things have to happen and they need to stay healthy, but the potential is certainly there.
Nathan Eovaldi is back as the ace, and while he had some injury issues in 2024, he should be good to go. He’s not what I would call a “dominant” arm, but he is very good when he has his stuff, and is a walking quality start when he is healthy. I expect Jacob deGrom to slot in at No. 2, and for him, it is all about staying on the field. He hasn’t been able to pitch a full-season in years, but when he does start, he is one of the best arms in the game today. Nearly unhittable in his prime, Texas has to hope he can at least play most of his starts for them.
Then, there are the young guys in Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. Both of them have MASSIVE potential this season to be fantastic, but again, they are very young and as such, unpredictable. There is also a chance that they are awful, but these are highly-touted prospects, and they have all the tools that are needed to be top of the rotation arms. In order for the Rangers to win the American League, they are going to need these two to take a step forward in their development. Tyler Mahle and Jon Gray as the third and fourth starters will not cut it, and we need these two to take their jobs.
As far as the lineup goes, they have many of the same bats that they did when they won the World Series in 2023. Marcus Semien needs a bounce back year, as does Corey Seager. These guys are veterans who I expect to progress back towards their mean performance this season. The additions of Jake Burger and Joc Pederson add some excellent power to the lineup, and I haven’t even mentioned Adolis Garcia, who might be their best bat overall. Sprinkle in the young stars like Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter, and you have a very dangerous lineup.
I expect the Astros and Mariners to still be very good teams this season, but the Rangers are much closer to them than this 12/1 number suggests, and the American League is really a huge toss up this season in my opinion. I think there is some good value on backing the Rangers to get back to the World Series at this kind of price.