The good news: The Boston Red Sox are set to play meaningful baseball games this week.
The bad news: They may not play meaningful games for long.
The Red Sox, who begin their shortened 2020 season Friday against the Baltimore Orioles, currently are listed at +4000 to win the World Series at DraftKings Sportsbook.
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Those are worse odds than 17 major league teams, including the American League East rival New York Yankees, who at +400 trail only the Los Angeles Dodgers (+375) for the shortest championship odds.
Here are the teams with the best World Series odds, per DK Sportsbook:
- Los Angeles Dodgers: +375
- New York Yankees: +400
- Houston Astros: +850
- Atlanta Braves: +1300
- Minnesota Twins: +1600
- Tampa Bay Rays: +1800
- Washington Nationals: +1900
- New York Mets: +2000
- Chicago Cubs: +2200
- Philadelphia Phillies: +2200
- St. Louis Cardinals: +2200
Boston had +3000 odds to win the 2020 World Series when Major League Baseball first announced its 60-game schedule in late June.
The Red Sox' already-thin pitching staff has thinned out even more over the last few weeks, though: Left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez recently tested positive for COVID-19, while right-hander Collin McHugh opted out of the 2020 season Sunday.
While Rodriguez returned to the team Saturday, Nathan Eovaldi is Boston's new Opening Day starter with only Martin Perez and Brian Johnson behind them on the depth chart. The Red Sox boast a relatively strong batting order despite losing Mookie Betts and should score plenty of runs in 2020, but their shortcomings on the mound might be too much to overcome.
Oh, and Boston also faces some stiff competition: Six of its nine opponents this season rank among the 10 teams with the strongest odds to win the World Series.
