Yankees' Division Odds Pass Blue Jays in AL East With Hot Start

Listen, it's still early, but we are always looking for betting angles in the MLB Futures market.

The biggest development of the season has been the emergence of the New York Yankees, who have won 11-straight, including two-straight over the Toronto Blue Jays to pull 3.5 games ahead of their biggest competition.

The Bronx Bombers are getting massive production from their lineup, namely AL MVP candidate Aaron Judge, and have a dark horse Cy Young candidate in Nestor Cortes Jr.

With the best record in the big leagues, 18-6, is there still value betting the Yankees to win the AL East? Let's check out the odds from WynnBET Sportsbook:

AL East Odds

• New York Yankees: +135
• Toronto Blue Jays: +145
• Tampa Bay Rays: +500
• Boston Red Sox: +1400
• Baltimore Orioles: +100000

Yankees Lineup Mashing

New York's lineup has been on fire over this 11 game winning streak. Judge has been the headline name for the Yanks, emerging as an early candidate for AL MVP, but the whole team has been on at the plate.

While Judge is on fire, the likes of Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton have pushed this team in front of the pace of the division.

Elite Pitching Staff

While it was a concerning start to the year for Gerrit Cole, the team has seen other arms pick up the slack, namely Cortes, who has a 1.31 ERA this season while striking out 12.2 batters per 9 innings and walking just over 1 per 9 as well. If he keeps this up, expect to hear Cortes' name in Cy Young conversations as the season drags on with the Yankees having the best record in baseball.

Cole's control is down this year from last as he struggles with walking batters, but it's not all doom and gloom as he still anchors the rotation as the ace with a 3.00 ERA. Luis Severino looks to be healthy in the middle of the rotation as well, pitching to a 3.75 ERA.

Can Yankees Keep it Up?

Overall, this is as balanced a team as you can ask for, leading the bigs in run differential after about a month of play. FanGraphs projects the Yankees to maintain their best record in baseball status through the rest of the season, projecting them for 96 wins, one game ahead of the projected second place Dodgers and 3 up on the Blue Jays.

This is the start of a competitive race for the AL East, but these odds imply a 42.5% chance, which may be underselling the Yankees, who have taken 2 straight from the Jays and have a comfortable lead for now. These odds appear to be going in one direction for the time being and that is closer to -110 than +200 after this series.