Top Early Odds & Picks to Win 2024 MLB World Series
The Texas Rangers won their first World Series in franchise history, and there are now just five MLB franchises that have never won a World Series title. Considering Texas had lost 100-plus games just two years ago, bettors who accurately predicted its championship run in 2023 profited handsomely, as the Rangers had +5000 preseason odds to win the World Series, per sportsoddshistory.com.
Two of our top sportsbooks already have odds listed for the 2024 World Series, so we have scoured the odds to make our two best bets for next year’s champion (one from the American League and one from the National League). These odds will change massively once the dust settles after free agency, especially after Shohei Ohtani’s landing spot is known, which makes for a real opportunity to find teams at buy-low spots now. There has not been a repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees, so who other than the Rangers do we expect to take home the title next season?
Here are our 2024 MLB World Series Best Bets.
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2024 MLB World Series Odds
(Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook)
| TEAM | ODDS |
| Atlanta Braves | +600 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | +700 |
| Texas Rangers | +800 |
| Houston Astros | +800 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | +1000 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | +1300 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | +1600 |
| New York Yankees | +1600 |
| San Diego Padres | +1800 |
| Minnesota Twins | +1800 |
| Baltimore Orioles | +1800 |
| Seattle Mariners | +2000 |
| New York Mets | +2500 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | +4000 |
| Chicago Cubs | +4000 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | +4000 |
| Boston Red Sox | +4000 |
| Cincinnati Reds | +5000 |
2024 MLB World Series Best Bets
Seattle Mariners (+2000)
Seattle is one of the remaining five teams that has not won a World Series title. However, after a year where Texas won its first championship in franchise history, how fitting would it be for the Mariners to win their first title in their first-ever World Series appearance?
Though the Mariners have made the playoffs just once in the past 22 years, they finished with 88 wins (one year after winning 90 games) and just two games behind the Rangers and Houston Astros, the two teams that played an epic seven-game ALCS.
Seattle’s pitching staff was elite in 2023, tying for the fewest runs allowed in the American League. The Mariners have one of the deepest rotations returning with Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo, and Emerson Hancock. The team will also get back Marco Gonzales from injury after he made just 10 starts last season, and will also have 2021 Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray back from Tommy John surgery sometime after the All-Star Break. His fresh arm could be just what the team needs to get over the hump this season.
With a surplus of starting pitchers, Seattle could be aggressive with trades this offseason to bolster a lineup that ranked ninth in the American League in OPS. The Mariners have a solid young core to build around in Julio Rodriguez, J.P. Crawford, and Cal Raleigh, and were impressively in the mix for a playoff hunt in a stacked AL West division through the final weekend of the season despite striking out at the second-highest rate in the majors and batting just .247 with runners in scoring position.
Seattle had an Opening Day payroll of $137M and only has a little over $100M committed for 2024. Could the Mariners open up the checkbook and be the landing spot for Ohtani, given his afinity for playing on the West Coast?
Chicago Cubs (+4000)
The Arizona Diamondbacks proved that an 84-win team that battled for an NL wild card spot all season has just as good of a chance as any to make a World Series run if they get into the playoffs. Their youth movement, with a nucleus of Corbin Carroll, Gabriel Moreno, Alek Thomas, and Geraldo Perdomo, all of whom are 24 years old or younger, proved that a team does not have to be chock-full of veterans to be successful. The Chicago Cubs are very similar to Arizona regarding the influx of youthful talent on their roster and could make a similar leap that Arizona made this year.
Chicago missed the postseason by one game in 2023 after losing five of its final six games (they also went 7-15 over their final 22). The Cubs ranked in the top 10 in run differential (+96), which even trumped the Milwaukee Brewers’ +81 run differential despite finishing nine games behind them in the division. Chicago scored the third-most runs of any National League team (behind the Braves and Dodgers), and they have solid pieces of their rotation returning in Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad, and Jordan Wicks.
Chicago has $60M coming off the books this season, and we trust the front office to make sound moves in free agency after striking rich with a resurgent season from Cody Bellinger (.307 average, 26 home runs, 97 RBIs) and with Dansby Swanson also contributing. While it will cost a lot more money than they paid Bellinger to keep him for this season, the team could also use their money to pursue hitters like Matt Chapman, another starting pitcher like Aaron Nola, or could even land Ohtani, given his relationship with Seiya Suzuki. The Cubs are also positioned for a semi-youth movement like the Diamondbacks with Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alexander Canario, and Owen Caissie, among others, who are ready to contribute at the MLB level.
The Brewers are expected to take a considerable step back next season and the Cardinals are still amid a rebuild. This means the Cubs could enter 2024 as the favorites in the NL Central and not have to rely on fighting for a wild card berth as the beginning of their postseason run. If not for anything else, the amount of promising young talent they have in the farm system could be what is needed to seek significant mid-season acquisitions at the trade deadline, so the arrow is pointing straight up for Chicago in 2024.
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Mike Spector is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeSpector01.