2022 National League MVP Betting Odds
National League MVP Betting Odds
Every year, there is an unspoken race for the title of the best player in sports.
Different leagues break this down within their respective area of expertise with the Most Valuable Player award, dignifying the athlete that made the greatest contribution to their team through their outstanding individual excellence, consistency, and reliability.
There are a slew of worthy candidates, many of whom have not been in the race recently, if at all, and the race is wide open. Fernando Tatis Jr., notably, has +12500 odds, having failed to appear in a single game at the time of publication. Here is the list of the top contenders for the award.
Paul Goldschmidt (+190)
Goldschmidt, the 2015 MVP runner-up, has been the best player on a National League Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals team, even outshining the ever-present Nolan Arenado.
The first baseman is hitting .344 at the plate, the second-best average in the league, has 16 home runs, tied for 13th and on off the mark of a player like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and 58 RBIs, third-most in the league.
Goldschmidt had a tremendous May month, hitting above .400, which boosted his stats quite dramatically and threw him right into the heart of the MVP discussion; he could go a long way towards winning the award if he could help his Cardinals stave off the Milwaukee Brewers and win the division.
Manny Machado (+300)
The greatest benefactor from Tatis Jr.’s absence has been Machado, who has been the most important player for a San Diego Padres team that is 41-27 and only a half-game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in a National League West division that they have spent a majority of the season leading or heavily contending for.
Machado is hitting .328, the sixth-best in the league, and has 12 home runs, 46 RBIs, and a .945 OPS, ninth-best in baseball; his .545 slugging percentage is also the second-best in his 11-year career, and he has been the clear most influential offensive player in San Diego.
Like Goldschmidt, he will have the opportunity to make a major statement if he can help win the NL West, although the return of Tatis Jr. could eventually take eyes off of his MVP case and reintroduce the importance of the younger superstar.
Pete Alonso (+600)
This year is Alonso’s best chance to win the MVP award in his young, four-year career— the usual All-Star and Home Run Derby phenom is hitting .280 with 19 homers, third-most in the league, and a league-best 63 RBIs, for the best team in the National League, the New York Mets.
The 27-year-old has been the obvious number-one threat for the team’s offense and has been extremely impactful in them reaching their 44-24 record and setting themselves up for World Series contention.
Alonso will need to continue leaving the park with great regularity if he wants to win the MVP, as his batting average will not stop anyone in their tracks, but he is on the right path with both his team and individual play.
Mookie Betts (+700)
Betts has emerged as one of the standouts on a Dodgers team that is so good that it has almost become faceless, not because of their lack of superstar talent but because there are so many players with so many accolades that it is often difficult to highlight which players are the most influential. Betts is hitting .273 with 17 home runs, tied for 10th-best in the league, and is the one true long-ball hitter on the Dodgers’ roster.
He is also an outstanding defensive player, better than the other candidates in the field, and has the privilege of suiting up for the odds-on NL champs every night, which will guarantee that his name remains in the conversation— however, this privilege will also become a burden if the P{adres end up winning the division, which would effectively end his campaign.
Bryce Harper (+900)
The 2021 NL MVP winner has been up to more of the same, hitting .326, up from 2021’s .309 standard, and 15 home runs, almost an identical rate at which he hit them last season, which he finished with 35; Harper is also tied for the eighth-most RBIs in the league with 48 and has team-highs in batting average, RBIs, and on-base percentage.
Philadelphia’s season started a little rocky, and they still have not proven themselves to be legitimate contenders; and combined with the voter fatigue-based adversity that he will be facing, Harper will have to do something pretty remarkable in the back half of the season to leap past the other players in contention and set himself up for his second consecutive MVP award.
However, he has all of the talent in the world to pull off the feat, and his team as a whole is streaky and is one hot streak away from making some noise in the Wild Card.
