MLB Futures Betting: Yankees Lead the Field, White Sox the Outside Bet

The 2020 MLB season is well and truly on the horizon with spring training now being undertaken by the teams ahead of the first match-up on March 26th, so who should you be backing in your MLB futures bet?

A bet on the Yankees won’t pay out much but it’s a safe one to consider given the quality of the side’s ballpen. Last term they made it to the American League Championship series, where they lost to the Houston Astros and they have beefed up their roster by picking up Gerrit Cole in the free agency, so if that’s the way you want to go, then you may well win a small tidy sum.

But where else could you look? 

MLB Futures Odds provided by Intertops

New York Yankees +350

Los Angeles Dodgers +400

Houston Astros +550

Atlanta Braves +1100

Washington Nationals +1400

Last year’s winners the Nationals are a nice long-odds bet to repeat their 2019 success, though clearly that was their first World Series title and as such there is an argument that lightning doesn’t tend to strike twice.

The Chicago White Sox, priced around +3200, are some pundits’ surprise package to consider a futures bet on, and clearly at those odds such a bet sounds very enticing indeed.

In their favor is the fact that they take part in one of the weaker divisions, the American League Central, and they greatly improved their squad over the close season with the likes of Edwin Encarnacion, Dallas Keuchel and Yasmani Grandal coming in. 

The White Sox did of course win the World Series in 2005, ending an 80+ year drought, and perhaps they can once again pull off a surprise triumph.

So backing the White Sox with a cheeky small bet, coupled with a safe wager on the Yankees, could be a nice way to cover yourself at both ends of the futures market.