The Braves are offseason favorites to win the 2024 World Series, but the Dodgers — No. 2 on the leaderboard — are perhaps the favorites to land the most coveted free agent in MLB history: Shohei Ohtani.
There are no official odds boards on Ohtani's next destination. But MLB insider Jon Heyman listed his own qualitative odds chart, using his sources in order to come up with a quantitative marketplace.
In Heyman's eyes, the Dodgers are co-favorites at +600 to land Ohtani. Tied with Los Angeles atop the leaderboard are the Rangers and Giants. With World Series odds at +5500, it appears the idea of Ohtani lining homers into McCovey Cove haven't been worked into the market quite yet.
And the Rangers — as World Series winners — are artificially higher than they should be in this marketplace. The tax you'd pay on a 90-win Wild Card team to win the World Series (+800) is more contingent on recent performance than it is predictive about future outcomes.
Behind that trio of teams are the Mets at +800, whose World Series odds at +3000 imply the market hasn't fully respected Heyman's odds board. The Red Sox are next-best favorites at +1000 while Ohtani's incumbent Angels are at just +1500, which is reflected in their paltry +10000 odds to win the World Series next season. The Angels went all-in last season in an attempt to appease Ohtani and convince him to stay. They fell flat on their face, shipping away several players they acquired at the trade deadline and limping into their ninth straight non-playoff season.
The Braves, meanwhile, don't expect to chase after Ohtani, with limited physical or fiscal room on their payroll. Still, Atlanta sits pretty atop the 2024 World Series odds board — just as it did before the 2023 season.
