Morning Coffee: The potential trade that would change everything in AL MVP market

Shohei Ohtani has been an overwhelming favourite to win the AL MVP award for weeks at FanDuel.

What happens if he doesn’t finish the season playing in the American League?

I’m not an MLB Insider by any means, but as someone who built a futures ticket with an AL MVP pick on it before the season started, it’s something I considered.

Ohtani is in the final year of his current contract. He’s one of the best athletes on the planet and at the end of this season he will be free to sign with any team he chooses.

Will he finish this season with the Los Angeles Angels?

Ohtani entered this week as a -1450 favourite to win the AL MVP at FanDuel. His odds to win that award were cut to -600 after he exited Tuesday’s loss to the San Diego Padres due to a blister on his throwing hand.

Ohtani is -750 to win AL MVP this morning.

The Angels suddenly find themselves in a tailspin heading into the All-Star Break, with a mounting number of significant injuries that they will be forced to overcome if they are going to fight their way back into the AL wild-card picture.

Could the Angels change direction and trade Ohtani before the break?

If Ohtani is traded to a National League team, what happens to the AL MVP market?   

This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday, July 6, 2023.

The trade that would change everything in AL MVP market

Two weeks ago, the Angels were 44-37 and in the thick of the AL wild-card race, with two of the best players in baseball leading their charge.

There isn’t much that has gone right for the Halos since then.

The Angels have dropped three straight and seven of their past eight games overall to fall to 45-44.

L.A. is currently seven games back of the Texas Rangers for first place in the AL West and four games back of the New York Yankees for the final wild-card spot.

They just lost Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon again to injury, while Shohei Ohtani is dealing with a blister on his throwing hand.

With two games coming up this weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers before the break, there is a very real chance that the Halos enter the second half with a losing record.

If that’s the case, would the Angels consider trading Ohtani?

It’s a potential trade that could change everything in the AL MVP market.

If you think it’s possible that Ohtani is traded, you might want to consider sprinkling on the field at +480 in the Ohtani versus the field market at FanDuel.

Again, I’m not an MLB Insider and I don’t know that Ohtani will be traded.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he wasn’t.

However, amidst their current plight, there’s been plenty of speculation about what the Angels will do next.

If Ohtani is traded to an NL team, it would be something that impacts everyone with a ticket on the AL MVP market at FanDuel.

A FanDuel Best Bet for Thursday’s MLB slate

In case you missed it, we improved to 3-0 in the month of July with another FanDuel Best Bet winner on Wednesday, cashing with the San Diego Padres on the money line against the Angels.

For today’s FanDuel Best Bet, I’m taking the Arizona Diamondbacks on the money line at home against the New York Mets at -134.

Arizona has been one of the biggest overachievers versus expectation in baseball throughout the first half of the season.

Despite dropping three in a row, the Diamondbacks still lead the NL West with a 50-37 record.

Meanwhile, the New York Mets have been one of the biggest underachievers of the first half, but they’ve strung together four wins in a row, including the first two games of this three-game series in Arizona.

The Mets were 18-27 on the road entering this series.

Will they complete the three-game sweep tonight?

I’m betting against it.

Carlos Carrasco posted a 6.23 ERA in the month of June. New York didn’t win any of his five starts.

Meanwhile, Ryne Nelson is coming off a couple of quality starts, giving up just two earned runs over 14.1 innings of work in back-to-back wins over the San Francisco Giants and the Angels.

I’ll take the Diamondbacks on the money line at -134 as my FanDuel Best Bet for Thursday’s MLB slate.