MLB Futures: Best Bets for AL Pennant Winner (2020)

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In a restructured baseball season, the American League race is sure to be interesting. While the Houston Astros are the defending champs, their cheating scandal has kept them from being the favorites.

Let’s look at the best bets for this year’s race! And find all of our best bets for NL Pennant winners here.

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The Favorite: New York Yankees (+145)

Fresh off a 103-win season, you would think this team didn’t need any extra help. Instead, they went out and signed disputably the best starting pitcher in baseball, Gerrit Cole. In 2019, Cole, then an Astro, went 20-5 with a 2.50 ERA and 326 strikeouts. He will lead an already strong rotation that consists of James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka, which should be one of the best in the American League.

The delayed start to the season will only be beneficial for this already stellar offense. The Yanks hit 306 home runs last year — the second-most in the majors, which is impressive since sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton combined for only 120 games played. Both were slated to begin 2020 on the IL, but they should be healthy when the season resumes. The late start will be a godsend for them offensively, but it’ll be a reckoning for the rest of the league.

Top-to-bottom, the Yankees have one of the deepest lineups in the AL, and they will be a force. There are certainly worse places to put your money — don’t get complicated.

Best Value: Tampa Bay Rays (+1000)

Look for Tampa to keep their momentum going after nearly defeating the Astros in the 2019 ALDS. The Rays fell in Game 5 after succumbing to the aforementioned Gerrit Cole, who won both his starts in the series with a 0.57 ERA. While they won’t be able to escape Cole’s presence again now that he’s a member of the Yankees, there’s plenty of reason for optimism in 2020.

While their offense isn’t the juggernaut like that of the Yankees or Twins, this lineup won’t be a slouch either. Last season, the Rays saw breakout years out of infielders Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe. On top of that, top prospect Austin Meadows made his first All-Star game appearance en route to hitting 33 home runs and knocking in 89 RB in just 138 games played. The offseason additions of Jose Martinez, Hunter Renfroe, and Manuel Margot won’t make anyone gasp, but their combined power, speed and defensive prowess’s should pay dividends.

How far the Rays make it this season will be contingent on their pitching success. The rotation, led by Charlie Morton, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow, in my opinion, is the best in the AL. Morton finished 2019 third in AL Cy Young voting, while Snell won the prestigious award in 2018. If forearm tightness didn’t derail a majority of last season for Glasnow, he was on his way to a potential Cy Young season himself after posting a ridiculous 1.78 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in 60 2/3 innings.

Their monster bullpen augments an elite starting lineup. Led by Nick Anderson, who posted a ridiculous 41.7% strikeout and 19.5% swinging-strike rate in 2019. Pairing him with Diego Castillo, Jose Alvarado, and Colin Poche makes for a lethal combination that will be unforgiving in the later innings. Don’t be surprised if you see this squad spraying champagne after the ALCS is completed this upcoming fall.

Best Longshot: Los Angeles Angels (+1800) 

The Angels made a big splash this offseason when they signed Anthony Rendon to a seven-year, $245 million contract. Adding Rendon to an offense comprised of Shohei Ohtani, Just Upton, and superstar Mike Trout will be intimidating, to say the least. Manufacturing runs shouldn’t be an issue this season, and Rendon’s defensive prowess at third base alongside Andrelton Simmons makes the left side of the infield airtight. Where the Angels lack, however, is in pitching.

Shohei Ohtani will lead the Angels’ rotation in 2020. The last time we saw the two-way star pitch was in 2018 when he posted a 3.31 ERA in 51 innings before succumbing to Tommy John surgery. While we don’t know what to expect from him at the offset, we know from a small sample size and his previous success in Japan that he’s capable of leading a rotation. Behind him is where it gets murky. They added free agent inning-eater Julio Teheran and former top prospect Dylan Bundy — whose breakout is supposed to happen every year but is yet to be seen. Filling in the rest of the rotation is the underwhelming Andrew Heaney and former second-round pick Griffin Canning, who has tremendous upside by all accounts.

Anytime you have Mike Trout on your roster, your team has a chance. While the offense will no doubt propel this team, I believe we need to see Ohtani return to his previous ace form and breakout years from Bundy and Canning — which is certainly a plausible scenario and worth a few speculative dollars at 18-1.

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Jordan Anderson is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Jordan, check out his archive.