Shohei Ohtani Overtakes Mike Trout as AL MVP Favorite

Move over Mike Trout, there’s a new betting favorite to be named the American League MVP.

WynnBET has Shohei Ohtani set atop the latest odds list at +155, overtaking his teammate who has already won the award three times in his career. Trout was recently placed on the injured list with a calf strain that occurred on May 17th.

Ohtani is bringing something to Major League Baseball that we haven’t seen since the likes of Babe Ruth. If that sounds dramatic, consider the fact that he was the first Major League Baseball player to start a game as a pitcher while simultaneously leading the Majors in home runs, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Ruth in 1921.

Ohtani currently has 14 home runs, the most in the Majors, while also sporting a 2.10 ERA and striking out batters at a rate of 14 K's per nine innings.

Ohtani is beyond just a generational talent, he’s quite literally a once-in-a-century talent.

You could take away his ability to pitch for the rest of the 2021 season and he still might just be named the American League MVP based on his batting alone. On top of leading the Majors in home runs, Ohtani also leads in extra base hits and total bases.

If he manages to continue this rate of play, we might as well go ahead and hand him the MVP award for the next five years.

It’s too bad that Ohtani’s success hasn’t translated into team success for the Los Angeles Angels as they currently sit in fourth place in the AL West with a record of 18-23. WynnBET has their odds of winning the division at +900 which is an implied probability of 10%.

That's pretty shocking for a team that has arguably the two best baseball players on the planet on its roster.