NEWSLETTER
Although the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years just 10 days ago, that doesn’t mean people aren’t already looking ahead to next season.
Hell, the Cubs claimed a pitcher off waivers from the Yankees the night they won it all.
And obviously, a big part of looking ahead to next season is checking in on the Cubs chances of contention in the NL Central and throughout Major League Baseball.
Although, we’ve so frequently reaffirmed that the Cubs have the type of talented, young core for years of contention (they do), and although baseball fans in general expect the Cubs to compete again next year, we can often get too close to our own team and forget to see how they stack up throughout the league.
But if you’re asking Vegas, the Cubs are headed right back to destiny next year, and it isn’t particularly close.
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At Forbes.com, Maurey Brown collected the various World Series odds for teams around baseball, synthesizing them in one place. The Cubs, after winning it all in 2016, come out on top:
- Chicago Cubs – 7/2
- Boston Red Sox – 9/1
- Los Angeles Dodgers – 9/1
- Washington Nationals – 12/1
- Cleveland Indians -14/1
- New York Mets – 14/1
- San Francisco Giants – 14/1
- Toronto Blue Jays – 14/1
- Houston Astros – 16/1
- Texas Rangers – 16/1
I can’t speak to the quality of the odds themselves, but that group of teams certainly seems plausible, especially given their success this season.
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According to Brown, the Diamondbacks, Braves, Reds, Twins, Phillies, and Padres are at the bottom of the barrel with 100/1 odds of taking home the big hardware. Out of all those teams, the Phillies actually seem to be the ones out of place. I doubt they win the World Series, but I don’t think they belong next to the Padres and Reds, for example. [Brett: hey, I said something similar last night! I guess that means if you want to put $10 on a long-shot, the Phillies are your team.]
Back to Chicago.
Yes, the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, but as we all very well know, that was just their first win in over 100 years. That means they have a lot of ground to make up. And if Dave Cameron is correct about the Cubs being at the beginning of a dynasty, then these Vegas odds makers might be right on the money. Who knows, maybe they really will win two in a row. Kinda still feels like the fans deserve it.
