We are still a couple of months away from the 2025 MLB season opening up, but it is starting to become that time of year where we start looking at some future bets for the upcoming season. Most wagers are hard to make right now because there is still a lot of uncertainty out there with where top free agents will sign and what trades will go down in the Winter meetings. There is always something being cooked up that will shock people when it goes down. The biggest domino seems to have fallen, with Juan Soto to the Mets, and Kyle Tucker’s trade to the Cubs was also significant.
However, even with those two joining the National League, their chances of winning NL MVP are far lower than they had winning AL MVP. Why is that? One man stands in their way, and he has become pretty much an auto-bet every single season to take home the MVP award for whatever league he has played in.
Shohei Ohtani won his second straight MVP award this past season, and now has won both an AL and NL MVP. It also isn’t like it has really been a competition for him either, as he won them both convincingly without a shadow of a doubt. It was perhaps even more impressive this past season because he didn’t pitch at all, and that was a big contributor to his first award. Being able to pitch and hit at an all-star level pretty much guarantees an MVP award. He did it off his bat alone in 2024, which is just telling that he really is an incredible talent.
In 2024, Ohtani hit .310 (5th in MLB) with 54 home runs (2nd), 130 RBI (2nd), and a 1.036 OPS (2nd). The only other player to maintain a top-5 ranking for all of these at the same time was Aaron Judge, who won AL MVP. Ohtani also walked 81 times and stole 59 bases as one of the premier baserunners in the league. He’s the total package, and as long as he stays healthy, there isn’t a single player that can compete with him in the NL to win the MVP.
Taking a look at the latest odds to win NL MVP over at DraftKings Sportsbook, the top five are as follows: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers: +200, Juan Soto, Mets: +550, Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres: +750, Mookie Betts, Dodgers: +1200, Bryce Harper, Phillies: +1400
As you can see, even when compared to those other superstars, no one even touches Ohtani in likelihood to win the NL MVP award. Soto comes the closest, but even he is way off of the 2/1 odds that Ohtani commands. In the AL, Judge is a 3/1 favorite to win the award, so Ohtani is the most likely player in either league to win.
Get up to $1,500 in Bonus Bets at BetMGM! All you need to do is CLICK HERE, sign up for a new account, make your first deposit and bet! Don’t miss out!
Related
