Morning Coffee: AL West teams go all-in at MLB trade deadline

The Los Angeles Angels struck first with a pair of trades that signalled they were all-in to make a postseason push last week.

The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros followed suit this week, adding a pair of veteran arms to their arsenal.

The Rangers, Astros, and Angels were all buyers at the MLB trade deadline.

While Texas and Houston will battle it out for first place in the American League West the rest of the regular season, Los Angeles is three games back of an AL wild-card spot.

What are the odds that all three teams make the playoffs?

The Rangers and Astros appear to be in good shape.

Meanwhile, the Angels made the boldest moves of the handful of teams chasing that final postseason spot.

This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023.

AL West teams go all-in at MLB trade deadline

The Angels caught a lot of heat when they decided to keep Shohei Ohtani and trade for Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, C.J. Cron, and Randal Grichuk.

Los Angeles is +4100 to win the American League and +7500 to win the World Series at FanDuel this morning.

While the Halos are still considered major long shots to contend, I’m fascinated that they went all-in at the deadline while several contenders opted to stand pat.

The Baltimore Orioles have the best record in the American League.

While they added Jack Flaherty from the St. Louis Cardinals, the fact that Baltimore didn’t make a bigger splash caught a lot of fans off guard based on their current position and the fact that they have a loaded farm system.

The Rangers traded for Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery. The Astros brought back Justin Verlander.

Even the Angels made a couple of notable trades in an effort to make a push for a postseason spot.

While the AL West teams went all-in, the Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees were all surprisingly quiet in the AL East.

What does that mean in terms of MLB futures?

The Rays remain the favourite to win the American League at +320. Five teams have shorter than 10-to-1 odds to win the AL.

For perspective, the Atlanta Braves (+140) and Los Angeles Dodgers (+200) are the only teams with short than 10-to-1 odds to win the NL at FanDuel this morning.

The Braves and Dodgers remain the top two choices to win the World Series at +300 and +450, respectively.

The next five choices are all AL teams in the Rays (+650), Astros (+700), Rangers (+800), Orioles (+1200) and the Blue Jays (+1700).

The MLB trade deadline was supposed to give us a little more clarity in terms of separation at the top of the AL.

Instead, the American League still appears wide open with several teams that could contend for the pennant.

A FanDuel Best Bet for Wednesday’s MLB slate

Speaking of clarity, we improved to 2-for-2 with the FanDuel Best Bets in this column with a wager on the Rangers to cover the run line at -105 in a 2-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.

Next up, we’re locking in the No Run First Inning bet in tonight’s AL East clash between the Rays and Yankees.

The NRFI has hit in 70 per cent of New York’s games this season. It’s hit in 66 per cent of Tampa Bay’s contests.

Tonight’s starters Shane McClanahan and Gerrit Cole have combined for a 34-8 NRFI record this season.

Both teams have hovered around the .500 mark over their past 10 games, and with the MLB trade deadline behind us, every single head-to-head win in the AL East will be that much more important.

I’ll take the NRFI in tonight’s showdown between the Rays and Yankees at -128 as my FanDuel Best Bet.

Good luck to anyone who tails!