The 2021 MLB season kicked off on April 1, and league officials plan to run a full 162-game season, following last year’s reduced schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the 30 teams has their eyes set on World Series glory, but everything points to one team walking away victoriously: the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Baseball pundits ran out of superlatives to describe the Dodgers last season. They were phenomenal and were rightly talked about as being one of the best teams of the modern era. Dodgers finished with a 43-17 regular-season record, a winning percentage of .717, which is the highest of the post-1960 expansion era. Had the Dodger finished a 162-game season at the same pace, they would have recorded 116 wins! Only the 1906 Chicago Cubs and 2001 Seattle Mariners have ever reached such a lofty total.
It was not surprising to see the Dodgers record their eighth successive divisional title before marching onto the World Series to beat the Tampa Bay Rays in six. You should not be surprised to discover the Dodgers are favorites for the divisional title and World Series in the 2021 MLB betting markets.
Any team with Mookie Betts in it always has a chance of winning. Betts signed a 12-year contract worth $365 million last season, the richest in Dodgers’ history. Betts made major inroads into paying back some of that massive sum by finishing the curtailed season .292/.366/.562 with 47 runs, the fourth-highest in the National League. He also enjoyed 16 home runs, 39RBIs, ten stolen bases, and a .928 OPS. Betts is an incredible baseball player.
The Dodgers are not a one-man team despite Betts’ apparent qualities. Expect Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager to be challenging for the National League MVP award, while youngsters Trevor Bauer, Walker Buehler, and Clayton Kershaw are superb players, too.
Whoever finishes ahead of the Dodgers this season will win the World Series. They have strength in depth. It would take an unprecedented injury list alongside San Diego Padres enjoying career-best seasons for Dodgers not to clinch their ninth straight divisional title.
NY Yankees Are the Dodgers’ Biggest World Series Threat
The New York Yankees have not enjoyed the greatest of starts to their 2021 campaign and find themselves bottom of the American League East with a 9-13 (0.409) record from their opening 22 fixtures. Form is temporary, and class is permanent so expect the Yankees to turn around their fortunes and mount a series charge for World Series glory.
Injuries to crucial players hindered the Yankees in 2020, and they need to do everything they can to keep those personnel fit and healthy for as many games as possible. Aaron Judge is a shining example of this. Judge hit 52 home runs in 2017 on his way to becoming the American League Rookie of the Year and has been one of the best all-round players in the MLB over the past three seasons.
The problem lies in that Judge keeps getting injured. He missed 110 games between 2018 and 2019 and only turned out 28 times in the COVID-19 hit 2020 season. He’s competed in 20 games so far in 2021, so perhaps the worst of his injury woes are behind him.
If, and it is a big if, the Yankees can keep such luminaries as Corey Kluber, Giancarlo Stanton, and Jameson Taillon fit for the majority of the season, the Yankees could and should win upwards of 100 games, and possibly set up a mouth-watering World Series clash against the seemingly unstoppable Dodgers.
