2022 Early-Season AL World Series Futures: Yankees Look Like Team to Beat

The New York Yankees are off to an incredible start in 2022 as the best team in baseball, and have a large lead in the American League East.

The Minnesota Twins have a lead in the Central, and following a massive losing streak by the Los Angeles Angels, the Houston Astros have significant control over the AL West.

American League East World Series Futures

New York Yankees | +600 at Caesars

Believe it or not, it’s been 16 years since the team synonymous with professional baseball captured its unparalleled 27th World Series ring. Times have changed.

There is conjecture that Aaron Judge could reach 60 home runs this year. Mammoth-size swings from Judge and a dizzying collection of supporting exit velocity executioners rule the American League.

Leading MLB in home runs with the Yankees’ brutish lineup and notoriously short porches shocks few.

The pitching staff’s emergence as one of the best in the early season raises eyebrows and World Series prospects. The team’s best overall ERA overcomes the small stadium and divisional hitter’s parks to stifle opponents.

Incredibly, Yankee pitchers surrender the lowest home run totals in baseball. Starters like Gerrit Cole and rising star Nestor Cortes share the credit. The underrated bullpen would make Mariano Rivera proud with one of the lowest relief pitching ERAs and WHIPs in baseball.

A strong mix of lefties and right-handers preserves individual matchup advantages crucial to the postseason, where the game shrinks and context becomes king.

Skeptics use that reality as a rationale for predicting the Yankees won’t carry hot bats into playoff baseball. This roster reaches truly rare levels of slugging too hard to ignore.

Consider too that these sluggers are extremely experienced with superstar expectations. Judge, former MVPs Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson, the glue of the 2016 Cubs World Series team Anthony Rizzo, and Cole carried “face of the franchise” status for their former teams.

Fiery closer Aroldis Chapman closed for the aforementioned World Series Cubs team as well.

This is not just another Yankee team overhyped because of the jersey.

World Series Potential: The Bronx Bombers seem to have what it takes this year, and the odds reflect that. Yankee teams of the past decade and a half have had trouble in the postseason, but this year may be different.

Toronto Blue Jays | +1000 at Caesars

The Blue Jays soar to indomitable heights when the bats and pitching flock together. DraftKings considers all five starting pitchers a possibility to win the AL Cy Young.

Rising superstar Vladamir Guerrero Jr. spearheads an effective overall lineup that also includes former World Series MVP George Springer, Silver Slugger Teoscar Hernández and former All-Star Corey Dickerson.

The AL East’s difficulty builds a tall obstacle for the Blue Jays to prevail over.

World Series Potential: Toronto has the pitching and the offense to compete in any series down the stretch, but will likely have a tough road as a wild card team.

Tampa Bay Rays | +2500 at FanDuel

The Tampa Bay Rays exorcized the devil out of their name in 2007. Winning a World Series would cause plenty of oddsmakers’ heads to spin in 2022.

The lineup trots out many exciting, young players that should make the Rays a formidable threat in a few years. Sensational 21-year-old shortstop Wander Franco checks the boxes of a perennial All-Star.

The pitching staff continues to hone its craft. The Rays lack a concrete bullpen structure and a reliable power source to replace Nelson Cruz.

World Series Potential: This is a good team that has had the best record in the AL East over the last three seasons. Good probably won’t upgrade to great until a few years from now.

Boston Red Sox | +4000 at Caesars

Fans long for the era of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez launching home runs while Pedro Martinez sends overmatched swingers to the Shadow Realm.

Glory days faded into gloomy days, leaving behind a ball club stuck under three superior teams in the AL East.

That said, the Red Sox recent winning streak has vaulted them right in the thick of wild card contention.

World Series Potential: Save your money. Despite playing better as of late, nothing but a time machine can save the Red Sox from watching the World Series at home this season.

Baltimore Orioles | +100000 at Caesars

Novices know turning $100 into six figures sounds amazing. How does the fourth-worst record in the AL right now and the worst record in all of Major League Baseball last year sound? Not so amazing, right?

That’s the correct choice and so is avoiding picking the Orioles to win anything other than a voyage inside a chocolate box if wagering on them.

World Series Potential: Bringing up the rear in the best division in baseball doesn’t bode well for any success in the near future.

American League Central

Minnesota Twins | +4500 at DraftKings

Two letters summarize the Twins: OK.

The team ranks slightly above or below average in almost every major category, including ending last year with a record well below .500, yet have started 2022 at 32-25.

The Twins don’t spark any intense feelings about finishing on either end of the spectrum.

World Series Potential: Minnesota currently leads the AL Central but many expect the White Sox to catch them. With the stacked AL East, a wild card berth is certainly not a given.

Cleveland Guardians | +15000 at DraftKings

Will a new name equip a new trophy to the Guardians’ new trophy case? The likelihood of World Series rejection echoes throughout Progressive Field.

Speaking of being progressive, Shane Bieber (not to be confused with Justin) performed an elite encore following his Cy Young 2020 season that rocked the league.

However, the back half of the Indians’ rotation and batting order lacks the luster of previous seasons. Terry Francona maximizes strengths as well as any manager in baseball. Unfortunately, this team’s overall makeup and near .500 record screams “middle of the pack.”

World Series Potential: Those attempting to steal a handsome 2022 World Series payday fare better consulting the Guardians of the Galaxy before the Cleveland Guardians.

Chicago White Sox | +2000 at Caesars

The White Sox know many ways to beat many teams. The roster’s flexibility stretched the win column to 93 tallies last year. The new season brings new struggles.

The White Sox stagger through a “one step forward, one step back” campaign that sees ascensions to the heights of sweeping the Yankees in a doubleheader, followed by lows plummeting to a 16-3 beatdown from the Red Sox days later.

Injuries play a role (ace Lance Lynn remains out from knee surgery), but it’s hard to see one player completely turning this turbulent tide crashing through the South Side.

Visualizing Tony La Russa hoisting a World Series trophy at age 78 plays more tricks on the mind. Nobody in modern times experienced more success than La Russa, but he’s grown increasingly defensive of instinctual decision-making in an analytics age where sabermetrics rule the landscape.

La Russa epitomizes being too long in the tooth to get this ball club steady enough to be anything more than a speculative long shot.

World Series Potential: If the White Sox can eliminate inconsistency and live up to their potential, they will be dangerous in October.

Detroit Tigers | +80000 at DraftKings

The Tigers have hit the fewest home runs in MLB so far. Careful ball placement isn’t to blame, as evidenced by a putrid .279 OBP that nearly places at the bottom of the majors.

Fans leave the ballpark when baseballs don’t. There isn’t much to see literally or figuratively for the team tied for the worst record in the AL.

Prospects like Spencer Torkelson getting time and experience at the big league level provide hope for the future, but there’s not much optimism in 2022.

World Series Potential: None for the near future unless the offense dramatically improves.

Kansas City Royals | +1500000 at FanDuel

The Kansas City Royals ascended to rule the MLB throne in 2015. Small ball kneels at the hyperactive feet of a team that hits the third-fewest home runs in MLB.

These Royals display an evident lack of patience that historically ruins regimes. Management chooses speed over strength, leading MLB in steals last year and staying in the top half of the league so far this season.

Those results present a compelling case to win the World Series if the game reverts to the style of play from 40 years ago.

World Series Potential: The Royals have won the fewest games in baseball in 2022, so not much.

American League West

Houston Astros | +750 at Caesars

The Astros surpassed the Yankees as public enemy No. 1 in the innocent eyes of baseball purists.

The maligned franchise buzzes in the right results at the pace of Ken Jennings in the aftermath of arguably baseball’s most elaborate scandal. A trio of AL pennants earned in the last five years dangle in the winds of expletives echoed throughout Minute Maid Park.

The Astros will compete for the best record in baseball yet again this season. Bettors know they’ll get their money’s worth from future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander on the mound and possible Cooperstown teammate Jose Altuve on the diamond.

Outfielder and DH Yordan Alvarez flexes youthful strength that sees him with the second most home runs in MLB.

Dusty Baker manages the stellar club. That’s both a gift and a curse. He positions teams for playoff success very well, enjoying inclusion in the 2,000-win club earlier this season and steering several to the World Series in the past.

The wheels (and often pitchers’ arms) fall apart in the World Series. Baker holds the worrying distinction of having the most wins without a World Series win as a manager. Baker’s Achilles’ heel resides in his inability to cut starting pitching short.

Verlander’s stamina bar outlasts most in modern history. The same can’t be said for other Astros pitchers. Baker’s habit of not differentiating between average arms and aces bites him in October seemingly every year.

World Series Potential: The Astros are a strong team that has a fairly good shot at advancing in the postseason, but you don’t have to be Einstein to imagine Dusty Baker’s picture next to his definition of insanity.

Los Angeles Angels | +4500 at DraftKings

If the Angels played basketball, the odds of winning the championship would be in the team’s favor. Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani are arguably baseball’s two best players. Taylor Ward led the league in batting average for a bit before recently hitting the injured list.

Winning baseball games requires much more than a terrific trio. Trout learned that the hard way, only appearing in one playoff series his entire career.

That misfortune projected to finally change, but the Halos have now dropped 13 games in a row bringing them under the .500 mark. Joe Maddon lost his job as manager in the process.

Maintaining pitching success when the team lacks a historical track record of doing so and injury concerns present the biggest challenges to the Angels finally getting the team hardware to match Trout and Ohtani’s individual greatness.

Ohtani shoulders the largest workload of any player since Babe Ruth and Trout’s missed games within the last five seasons for a variety of reasons is getting somewhat concerning. Fear of the unknown lurks around the postseason corner that hardly any players on this team have backed into.

World Series Potential: A team with the talent of the Angels should be right in the mix, but that hasn’t been the case of late. For the sake of baseball fans, it’d be a joy to watch Ohtani and Trout in the postseason but that seems far from a given right now.

Texas Rangers | +35000 at DraftKings

These odious odds skyrocket if Walker, Texas Ranger played for MLB’s Texas Rangers. Opponents tend to be the ones kicking around the Texas Rangers in Chuck Norris’ absence. Norris hits with precision, but the real Rangers can’t hit at all. The team ranked last in on-base percentage, second-worst in batting average and third-worst in runs and slugging percentage, en route to the third-worst record last year. Everything’s bigger in Texas, but nothing has gotten better.

World Series Potential:

Bettors selecting the Rangers will wish Norris roundhouse kicked them out of their considerable misery.

Seattle Mariners | +10000 at Caesars

The Seattle Mariners dominated the competition in the 2001 season. Adding 20 years subtracts World Series confidence. The team gathered the fewest hits last season.

Amassing the fewest hits sank the Mariners to the lowest batting average. Making every hit count crumbles as an excuse. The Mariners also rank near the bottom in slugging percentage, including experiencing the fewest triples.

Pitching woes raised this year. The team has allowed the most home runs in the league so far and ranks in the bottom 10 of essentially every category. Abysmal arms throw games away. Although Pearl Jam calls Seattle home, the team’s World Series chances are not still alive.

World Series Potential: This was supposed to be a year of growth for Seattle, but a record significantly under .500 has been disappointing so far.

Oakland Athletics | +100000 at Caesars

The Oakland Athletics play in a broad ballpark where it’s hard to keep the ball or 2022 World Series chances in play. The team struggles to find offense.

The Athletics embarrass fans who remember the good old days of Reggie Jackson’s clutch moonshots that came at a much higher clip than the players behind the current team’s second lowest total bases and home runs muster. Sleepy bats put any hopes of the Athletics even making the playoffs to bed.

It’s impossible to sleepwalk into first place in a division controlled by the Astros.

World Series Potential: None