The Dodgers are dominating, the Mets have taken a dive while surprise teams emerge, and baseball's new tech era is upon us
Incredibly, we’re at the quarter point of the 2026 MLB season, and a few things have become clear.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are still very good.
In MLB Betting today at Betway, the Dodgers are +185 to win the World Series. Next in line are the New York Yankees at +500. That sounds about right.
Blue Jays fans know full well how good the Dodgers are, getting a first-person education in last fall’s World Series.
So, what did the Dodgers do this off-season? They got deeper, adding Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz. Tucker has been good – .248 batting average, 4 HRs, 20 RBIs, and a .736 OPS. Diaz is expected to be out until the end of July following surgery on his elbow.
The Dodgers are tied for first (24-16) with the San Diego Padres in the National League West.
Ben Casparius (15-day IL), Brock Stewart (15-day IL), and Tyler Glasnow (15-day IL), are all injured, along with Diaz, but the Dodgers have used their deep resources to build a staff of 10-12 viable pitchers versus five dominant starters, and they keep plowing along.
Still that insane starting rotation (Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto), a .265 batting average as a team (led by Ohtani, Tucker and Freddie Freeman) keep driving the bus.
The emergence of surprise contenders.
The Tampa Bay Rays were +10000 in some books a few days before the season began in late March.
At Betway now the Rays are at +2800, piling up wins despite injuries – first in the American League East, at 26-13, one game up on the New York Yankees.
The Oakland A’s were +10000 in some books to start the season – they now sit first in the American League West, at 21-19, +5000 in World Series odds at Betway. The Miami Marlins have a young, emerging core, and are 19-22, third place in the National League East, 4.5 games out of a wildcard, +25000 at Betway now.
High-salary teams have taken a dive.
Meanwhile, club with high payrolls like the New York Mets (over a $375 million competitive balance tax payroll) have cratered, 15-25, .375, 12.5 games out of first in the National League East. The Mets were +1400 to win the World Series to start the season and are now +4000 at Betway.
The Boston Red Sox (+1600 to start the year), last in the AL East (+4000 now), have stood out as big money disappointments. Early season favourites like the Toronto Blue Jays (+1300 before the season started, +2000 at Betway now), Philadelphia Phillies (+1600, now +2200), the Baltimore Orioles (+2200, +3300 now at Betway), and the Houston Astros (+2200, +5000 now at Betway) have been treading water, or outright failing, depending on your perspective.
The normalization of baseball’s new tech era.
Hands up if you like baseball’s new ABS (automated ball-strike) challenge system.
In the eyes of many, it’s been a surprise. It hasn’t slowed down games that much. Umpires still call balls and strikes, but players (batter, pitcher or catcher) can challenge a call right away by tapping their helmet, and the technology makes the call. Each team starts with two per game, so it’s added a layer of tension and strategy.
Any delays have been countered by recent rule changes to speed up the game, like the pitch clock, plus limiting pitchers to just two pickoff attempts per batter.
According to Baseball Savant, there’s been 2,485 challenges, so far, with 1,317 calls overturned, and 1,168 confirmed.
International stars driving MLB’s global identity.
Besides Ohtani and Yamamoto in Los Angeles, of course, that’s being led by Munetaka Murakami and his explosive debut with the Chicago White Sox, smashing homers there (15 HRs, 29 RBIs, .920 OPS).
And don’t sleep on Kazuma Okamoto of the Blue Jays. The rookie leads the Jays in home runs, with 10, with an .814 OPS, and a .248 average. He’s been coming on of late.
