AL betting 2025 preview: Win totals and post-season odds for each team
The 2025 MLB season begins on March 18, with the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers playing a pair of games in Tokyo against the Chicago Cubs. For nearly everybody else, including 15 out of the 16 American League teams, Opening Day arrives on March 27. The Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays will play the first of their 162 games on March 28.
While each team’s season might not start at exactly the same time, every team does start with a clean slate. Nobody is in first place. Nobody is in last place. We won’t have a truly clear picture of which teams will end up making it to baseball’s postseason for several months. Still, that doesn’t mean we have no idea how the season might play out.
ESPN BET has posted win totals and postseason odds for the upcoming season. In the AL, the New York Yankees begin as favorites to win the most games (93.5) as well as make it to the World Series (+800). At the other end of the spectrum, the Chicago White Sox (50.5 wins) are the biggest long shot (+40000) to end up celebrating with champagne this fall.
Here are all of the odds for the AL teams and our thoughts on some potential wagers.
Odds as of publication. For the most up-to-date odds, visit ESPN BET. 
AL East
New York Yankees: 2024 record, 94-68
2025 win total: 93.5 (O -115/U -115)
Odds to win: Division (+110), ALCS (+275), World Series (+800)
UNDER 93.5 wins: I like the under because you like the over. No, that’s not me being a jerk. It’s simply understanding how books set lines. The Yankees are good, and everyone knows it. People like to bet overs on good teams, and books know it. That’s why they can set the line a couple of wins too high — they know people will bet it anyway. At least, most people will. You’re now a sharp, and we’re betting the under. Welcome to the club. — Carty
Baltimore Orioles: 2024 record, 91-71
2025 win total: 89.5 (O -120/U -110)
Odds to win: Division (+220), ALCS (+500), World Series (+1200)
UNDER 89.5 wins: Welcome to today’s matinee showing of “Bet the Good Team’s Under 2: Electric Bugaloo.” Baltimore’s reputation is good, but it only won 1.5 more games last year than this line, and it lost more than they added this winter — most notably, ace Corbin Burnes is now in Arizona. The public is dreaming on breakouts from young players such as Jackson Holliday and Heston Kjerstad, but the likelihood of prospects breaking out is always lower than the public wants to believe. My prediction system (THE BAT X) sees 82.5 wins for the Orioles. — Carty
Boston Red Sox: 2024 record, 81-81
2025 win total: 84.5 (O -115/U -115)
Odds to win: Division (+475), ALCS (+1400), World Series (+2500)
OVER 84.5 wins: Thanks, Derek — you had to leave me to talk about the team I’ve been following since 1971. There was a solid stretch from 2001 to about six years ago when you could usually guarantee profit simply by betting on both the Red Sox and Patriots to win everything. No crunching of numbers was required. In 2025, that’s no longer the case. My system has the Red Sox falling short of 84.5 wins, but I also don’t think they’re a finished product. Betting is serious, but there should be an element of entertainment, so consider this my only “heart over head” call. — Zola
Tampa Bay Rays: 2024 record, 80-82
2025 win total: 80.5 (O -115/U -115)
Odds to win: Division (+800), ALCS (+3000), World Series (+5000)
UNDER 80.5 wins: With everyone else in the AL East getting better (at least on paper), the Rays will have a tough time matching last season’s record. Yes, their pitching should be improved with several previously injured hurlers returning, but the chance they all regain their prior form is slim. They’re built to win through pitching and strong defense, but the Rays face an uphill battle with a road-heavy early schedule. Plus, while their temporary home (George M. Steinbrenner Field) shares the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium, it’s much hotter in the Sunshine State. Expect the venue to favor hitting. Sure, Rays batters will benefit, but probably not as much as their pitchers will suffer. — Zola
Toronto Blue Jays: 2024 record, 74-88
2025 win total: 76.5 (O -120/U -110)
Odds to win: Division (+1500), ALCS (+3000), World Series (+6000)
OVER 76.5 wins: I’ll feel better about this if the Blue Jays add one more bat, but at least they’ve upgraded their defense with Andres Gimenez and fortified their bullpen while also adding SP Max Scherzer. Toronto’s win total line was set for 2.5 wins more last season’s result, and my calculations peg the Blue Jays to collect 80 wins. — Zola
AL Central
Cleveland Guardians: 2024 record, 92-69
2025 win total: 83.5 (O -120/U -110)
Odds to win: Division (+230), ALCS (+1200), World Series (+2500)
UNDER 83.5 wins: The Guardians in 2024 are just like the Rangers from 2023 — a great story and an impressive season, but it just doesn’t look sustainable. Last year, Texas regressed by 12 wins and went under its Vegas win total by 11.5. When multiple players have career seasons all at once, odds are that several of them will fall back down to the earth the next year. THE BAT X doesn’t see Cleveland even being a .500 team in the average scenario. — Carty
Kansas City Royals: 2024 record, 86-76
2025 win total: 82.5 (O -115/U -115)
Odds to win: Division (+340), ALCS (+1800), World Series (+4000)
Royals WIN the division: As Derek explained, the wins line involves the books adjusting to the market. Even so, the Guardians, Tigers and Twins are all set at 83.5 with the Royals at 82.5. One of these teams has to win the division — sorry, Chicago — and when presented with what is essentially a four-way toss-up, I’ll back the club with the best odds. It also helps that my own numbers have the Royals ending up with the most wins in the AL Central. — Zola
Detroit Tigers: 2024 record, 86-76
2025 win total: 83.5 (O -115/U -115)
Odds to win: Division (+260), ALCS (+1200), World Series (+4000)
OVER 83.5 wins: By the numbers, this is my toughest call, with my projections calling for 84 wins out of Motown. Signing Jack Flaherty helped, but it also affected the line. This is a matter of trusting my system, which is optimistic toward youngsters Colt Keith, Riley Greene and Parker Meadows continuing to improve, along with being impressed with how manager A.J. Hinch manages the back end of his rotation and bullpen. — Zola
Minnesota Twins: 2024 record, 82-80
2025 win total: 83.5 (O -115/U -115)
Odds to win: Division (+240), ALCS (+1400), World Series (+3000)
UNDER 83.5 wins: The books expect the Twins to add a win or two to last season’s total, a year in which they lost just one game to the White Sox. Sure, Kansas City lost just one game to the White Sox as well, but the Royals improved while the Twins might have taken a step back. My numbers suggest Minnesota will be challenged to even match last season’s record, so I certainly can’t recommend betting on a better 2025. — Zola
Chicago White Sox: 2024 record, 41-121
2025 win total: 50.5 (O -130/U Even)
Odds to win: Division (+10000), ALCS (+20000), World Series (+40000)
OVER 50.5 wins: The White Sox are coming off a historically bad season. Sportsbooks are counting on bettors to be too chicken to bet the over here, regardless of the number. Compare this franchise to the Athletics, who won 50 games in 2023 and had a line of 56.5 last year. THE BAT X projected them for 67 wins and they ultimately won 69. At the time, I thought a double-digit win gap between the line and the projection was ridiculous — until I saw THE BAT X project 66 wins for the 2025 White Sox. This is the largest projected gap I’ve ever seen, and it’s easily the most +EV bet on the board. Yes, it’s gross. But that’s the reason you should bet it and not a reason to avoid it. — Carty.
AL West
Houston Astros: 2024 record, 88-73
2025 win total: 87.5 (O -115/U -115)
Odds to win: Division (+110), ALCS (+550), World Series (+1200)
UNDER 87.5 wins: While I love the fact that the Astros signed Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes, who has the ideal swing to become intimate with the Crawford Boxes, all of Houston’s starting outfielders should be backups on a good team — and playing Jose Altuve in left field isn’t the answer. The front end of the team’s rotation is solid, but after that things get dicey. I’m comfortable taking the under here on a team I peg for 85 wins. — Zola
Seattle Mariners: 2024 record, 85-77
2025 win total: 84.5 (O -115/U -115)
Odds to win: Division (+260), ALCS (+1200), World Series (+2500)
Mariners WIN the division: My projected numbers have the Mariners and Rangers finishing tied atop the AL West with 86 wins each. However, if you expressed their most likely outcomes as a range, Seattle would settle in at 85-87 wins, while Texas checks in between 84-88. I lean toward the safer play with less variance, and besides, the odds for the Mariners to win the division pay a little more than the Rangers’. — Zola
Texas Rangers: 2024 record, 78-84
2025 win total: 85.5 (O -110/U -120)
Odds to win: Division (+240), ALCS (+1200), World Series (+2500)
Rangers WIN the division: If there’s one thing we can count on in betting markets, it’s an overreaction to the previous season. Texas won the World Series in 2023 and was an easy under bet last year. Now, after finishing below .500, it is primed to regress the other way. Look, Houston got worse over the winter and THE BAT X projects it for five fewer wins than Texas, which is the most likely team to win the division at 47.2%. A fair line would be +112, so we’re looking at clear value here. — Carty
Athletics: 2024 record, 69-93
2025 win total: 70.5 (O -110/U -110)
Odds to win: Division (+3000), ALCS (+7500), World Series (+15000)
OVER 70.5 wins: My process for projecting win totals involves plugging a roster’s hitting and pitching wOBA into Bill James’ Pythagorean expectation formula. The results typically end up being more bunched than the sportsbooks’ lines, with weaker teams tending to have higher win totals and better teams garnering lower win totals. Some of the differences are market adjustments by bookmakers, but most are driven by regression, which is central to projection theory. That helps to explain my 77 win projection for the Athletics, who should also benefit from playing in Sacramento, where it is up to 20 degrees warmer than Oakland. — Zola
Los Angeles Angels: 2024 record, 63-99
2025 win total: 71.5 (O -120/U -110)
Odds to win: Division (+3000), ALCS (+7500), World Series (+15000)
OVER 71.5 wins: The Angels are a bad team, but they’ve underperformed the talent on their roster for the past couple of seasons and have been hit harder by injuries than normal variance would project. They certainly added a few wins this offseason, and a healthy Mike Trout puts them on track to beat this number, perhaps by as many as seven games. — Carty
NASCAR driver Katherine Legge said she has been receiving “hate mail” and “death threats” from auto racing fans after she was involved in a crash that collected veteran driver Kasey Kahne during the Xfinity Series race last weekend at Rockingham.
Legge, who has started four Indy 500s but is a relative novice in stock cars, added during Tuesday’s episode of her “Throttle Therapy” podcast that “the inappropriate social media comments I’ve received aren’t just disturbing, they are unacceptable.”
“Let me be very clear,” the British driver said, “I’m here to race and I’m here to compete, and I won’t tolerate any of these threats to my safety or to my dignity, whether that’s on track or off of it.”
Legge became the first woman in seven years to start a Cup Series race earlier this year at Phoenix. But her debut in NASCAR’s top series ended when Legge, who had already spun once, was involved in another spin and collected Daniel Suarez.
Her next start was the lower-level Xfinity race in Rockingham, North Carolina, last Saturday. Legge was good enough to make the field on speed but was bumped off the starting grid because of ownership points. Ultimately, she was able to take J.J. Yeley’s seat in the No. 53 car for Joey Gase Motorsports, which had to scramble at the last minute to prepare the car for her.
Legge was well off the pace as the leaders were lapping her, and when she entered Turn 1, William Sawalich got into the back of her car. That sent Legge spinning, and Kahne had nowhere to go, running into her along the bottom of the track.
“I gave [Sawalich] a lane and the reason the closing pace looks so high isn’t because I braked midcorner. I didn’t. I stayed on my line, stayed doing my speed, which obviously isn’t the speed of the leaders because they’re passing me,” Legge said. “He charged in a bit too hard, which is the speed difference you see. He understeered up a lane and into me, which spun me around.”
The 44-year-old Legge has experience in a variety of cars across numerous series. She made seven IndyCar starts for Dale Coyne Racing last year, and she has raced for several teams over more than a decade in the IMSA SportsCar series.
She has dabbled in NASCAR in the past, too, starting four Xfinity races during the 2018 season and another two years ago.
“I have earned my seat on that race track,” Legge said. “I’ve worked just as hard as any of the other drivers out there, and I’ve been racing professionally for the last 20 years. I’m 100 percent sure that … the teams that employed me — without me bringing any sponsorship money for the majority of those 20 years — did not do so as a DEI hire, or a gimmick, or anything else. It’s because I can drive a race car.”
Legge believes the vitriol she has received on social media is indicative of a larger issue with women in motorsports.
“Luckily,” she said, “I have been in tougher battles than you guys in the comment sections.”
Legge has received plenty of support from those in the racing community. IndyCar driver Marco Andretti clapped back at one critic on social media who called Legge “unproven” in response to a post about her history at the Indy 500.
“It’s wild to me how many grown men talk badly about badass girls like this,” Andretti wrote on X. “Does it make them feel more manly from the couch or something?”
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