Are bettors for some MLB playoff madness?
The last week in MLB has seen a ton of changes to the playoff picture, starting with the San Diego Padres briefly taking the division lead in the NL West from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
A Dodgers win on Sunday put the teams into a tie atop the standings, but San Diego has been making a serious push to win this race for quite some time.
In the American League, the Boston Red Sox shot themselves back into the top spot in the AL wild card race, taking three of four games from the New York Yankees.
New York’s win on Sunday gave it a slight edge over the Seattle Mariners — who are just two games back in the AL West — for the No. 2 wild card spot.
Injuries have taken a toll on a contender as well, as the Philadelphia Phillies lost ace Zack Wheeler for the rest of the season due to thoracic outlet syndrome, which will require surgery.
Philly has a massive lead now over the New York Mets in the NL East standings, but can it make a deep playoff run without Wheeler?
Speaking of the Mets, they have just a 1.5-game cushion in the wild card over the pesky Cincinnati Reds? Once again, I’ll examine the chances of the Reds sneaking into a playoff spot based on the latest odds.
A new week means that we’re taking a look at the latest betting odds to make the playoffs at SI Betting, and there may be a couple teams with some value to either win the division or make the postseason via the wild card.
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
Division Leaders
The division leaders in the American League have remained the same, only now oddsmakers have taken both the Blue Jays and Tigers off the board – a sign that they are locks to make the postseason.
Houston still has a lot of work to do, as it only has a two-game lead on the Mariners in the AL West.
Wild Card Race
Even after dropping three of four games to Boston, New York’s playoff odds increased from -1100 to -1400. Vegas appears to be very high on the Yankees, even though they’ve been awful against their own division, going 17-22 overall and 5-15 against division teams that are over .500.
Boston isn’t getting much love in this market, as it remains tied with the Mariners in the odds to make the playoffs despite moving back to the top wild card spot.
Kansas City, the only team that has a chance to really dethrone this top group, sits three games back of Seattle at the moment. At +290, the Royals certainly have a chance to get in, but they’re not nearly as close as the Reds in the NL – despite having better odds.
Division Leaders
Even with Wheeler’s injury, the Phillies have joined the Milwaukee Brewers as the only teams in the NL with their odds off the board to make the playoffs. Both squads have sizable leads in their division races heading into the home stretch of the regular season.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers are in a dead heat with San Diego in the NL West, although both teams are -20000 to make the playoffs this season.
Wild Card Race
San Diego and Chicago appear to have locked up wild card spots – at least – in the NL, but the final spot appears to be a two-team race between the Mets and Reds.
Despite remaining just 1.5 games out, the Reds’ odds to make the playoffs actually fell from +280 to +310, although the Mets fell from -370 to -350 in the process.
Cincy is certainly within striking distance, but it has the second-hardest remaining schedule in MLB.
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.si.com ’
