World Series 2024 Betting Odds: Dodgers the Favorite

Josh Gross

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It’s hard to believe the 2024 MLB season is here already, but we are now a few weeks into spring training action, and Opening Day is remarkably already here, with the Dodgers and Padres kicking off the year in South Korea Wednesday morning. Last week we took a look at awards markets, covering the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP odds. Today, we’ll be discussing what everybody looks forward to every October, the World Series.

2024 World Series Betting Odds and Picks

World Series Favorite

Los Angeles Dodgers

+320, FanDuel Sportsbook

Unsurprisingly, the Dodgers are the favorites to win the 2024 World Series. Had they not gone out and spent $1.23 billion this offseason, they remarkably probably still would have been the odds-on favorites. Instead, they got Tyler Glasnow via trade from the Rays, signed Teoscar Hernández to fill the void of J.D. Martinez entering free agency, signed James Paxton for a back-end rotation role, signed highly regarded Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto and of course got that Shohei Ohtani guy, who I hear happens to be very good at baseball. They will additionally have Walker Buehler and Gavin Lux, who both missed all of 2023 due to injury.

If there is a weakness on this team, it is probably their defense. After announcing Mookie Betts would permanently change positions, moving to second base, they were forced to pivot, instead moving Betts to shortstop after Lux experienced a case of the yips in his move to shortstop. Max Muncy is also now the permanent third baseman, and there are some concerns over his defensive range at the hot corner. The lineup is certainly deep. The rotation is deep. They will add Clayton Kershaw at some point in the summer as well, and my guess would be Kershaw will make for quite an excellent late-inning reliever in the postseason, given the depth they have in their rotation. It’s hard to doubt this Dodgers team, but as we know, this is baseball, and anything can happen on any given day.

Dodgers Projected Depth Chart

Catcher: Will Smith
First Base: Freddie Freeman
Second Base: Gavin Lux
Shortstop: Mookie Betts
Third Base: Max Muncy
Left Field: Teoscar Hernández
Center Field: James Outman
Right Field: Jason Heyward
Designated Hitter: Shohei Ohtani

Dodgers Projected Rotation

World Series Pick

Texas Rangers

+1500, DraftKings Sportsbook

This may be a fish pick, as nobody has gone back-to-back since the New York Yankees in 1999 and 2000. There have, however, been several instances of a team reaching the World Series in back-to-back seasons since then, including the Astros (2021-22), Dodgers (2017-18), Royals (2014-15), Rangers (2010-11) and Phillies (2008-09). This is a unique Rangers team, as you could certainly make a case they peaked a year early. They were a very young team, with some key veteran pieces, and they dealt with several key injuries as well, including Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Adolis García. The Rangers return their entire core group offensively, only this year they have the pleasure of adding 2023 No. 4 overall pick Wyatt Langford, who fast tracked his way to Triple-A by the end of the 2023 MILB season, and has impressed throughout spring training to a point where it appears he will break camp with the big-league club. Langford has drawn some comparisons to Mike Trout, which speaks volumes to what his ceiling can be. For me, it was evident that he was the best player in the 2023 draft class, but as we know, the MLB Draft is very different from other leagues, where money is generally the biggest factor as to who gets selected where.

The Rangers will additionally get a full season out of Evan Carter, who along with Langford is among the top three favorites to win AL Rookie of the Year. Carter joined the team last September, slashing .306/.413/.645 in his 22-game taste of big-league play. With MVP candidates such as Corey Seager and Marcus Semien at the top of this lineup, as well as Adolis García in the middle, the Rangers can make a case for having the best top-to-bottom lineup in the American League. Their weakness is their pitching. Their bullpen rated at the bottom of the league a season ago. They did bring in Kirby Yates and David Robertson in an attempt to rectify those late-inning issues. Both do have experience closing, which should help alongside José Leclerc. Their rotation could be better, but they’ll have sound mid-late season reinforcements in Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. For me, that’s the scary part of this team. They won a World Series last season without their best two starting pitchers. We can certainly argue Scherzer is on the decline, while it’s impossible to know what they will get out of deGrom off another big injury. However, if you can add those two at even 80% of their very best, this team is a force to be reckoned with. There’s considerable prospect depth as well should they choose to make a splash at the trade deadline this summer.

Rangers Projected Depth Chart

Catcher: Jonah Heim
First Base: Nathaniel Lowe
Second Base: Marcus Semien
Shortstop: Corey Seager
Third Base: Josh Jung
Left Field: Evan Carter
Center Field: Leody Taveras
Right Field: Adolis García
Designated Hitter: Wyatt Langford