If you haven’t entered the 2022 MLB futures market yet, it’s time to start thinking about doing so. Major League Baseball is nearing the halfway pole of the regular season, which means the best online betting sites for MLB are pumping the market full of big-picture odds. Our focus today is the 2022 MLB futures and odds to win the AL Central Division. The Minnesota Twins are currently the favorite, but are they actually?
Before we provide the answer, here are the latest betting odds to win the AL Central Division in 2022, courtesy of the fine folks over at Bovada:
| Division Winner |  |
|---|---|
| Minnesota Twins | +105 |
| Chicago White Sox | +185 |
| Cleveland Guardians | +310 |
| Detroit Tigers | +40000 |
| Kansas City Royals | +75000 |
As you can see, the Twins are not leading the Chicago White Sox by a whole lot. Many maintain the Cleveland Guardians still have a chance, and that Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals are the only squads actually beyond contention.
At any rate, you will want to double-check these MLB betting lines prior to settling on any picks. All 2022 MLB futures are subject to shift right up until the end of the season, and our baseball betting odds are accurate entering games on Wednesday, June 29.
With so much time before division champions are crowned, we highly recommend browsing through our reviews of the top gambling spots. We have everything from the best World Series betting sites to the overall best sites for online betting in the United States.
It says a lot about how good the Twins were earlier this season that they’re still holding down the top spot. Injuries have sent both their pitching rotation and batting lineup down a rabbit hole of losses. Minnesota does not, it seems, have the depth necessary to navigate longer-term absences from multiple key stakeholders.
Opposing bats are feasting on the Twins during this latest stretch. Minnesota is 23rd in ERA since the middle of May as a result.
Still, they are not without upside. Some of their best arms will soon be coming back, and at least part of their slippage in the standings and at the sportsbooks is owed to an unsustainably hot streak from the Guardians that has already started to subside.
If you want to get technical, the White Sox were already favored over the Twins once upon a time. Chicago entered the season as the betting favorite to win the AL Central, only to crumble beneath an onrush of injuries and general underachieving.
And yet, the White Sox refuse to go away. Just when it looked like they were done and that the AL Central was a race between the Guardians and Twins, they perked back up.
Only four teams have tallied more total runs over the past month, during which time Chicago has re-established themselves as an offensive dynamo at various spots in the batting order. Jake Burger and Andrew Vaughn are most responsible, but plenty of others have pitched in. And if the White Sox are even 80 percent this good the rest of the way, they’ll have a real shot of erasing the six-game gap separating them from the AL Central Division title.
Oddsmakers aren’t vibing the Guardians as hard as the White Sox for some reason—even though it’s Cleveland who sits in second place, directly behind Minnesota, in the standings by three full games. The Guardians are also working off one of baseball’s hottest stretches of the year.
The most recent dip probably has something to do with their current slump. They have dropped four of their last six games, including some matchups against what was at the time a heavily slumping Minnesota squad.
Both Andres Giminez and Jose Ramirez continue shine bright on the more glamorous end of the plate, but they’re going to need better consistency from the rest of Cleveland’s supporting bats if this team is going to fend off both the Twins and White Sox.
Going with the Twins is a risk here.
We’re doing it anywhere.
Minnesota has the highest ceiling of any team in the AL Central Division at full strength. And while they’re not at that point now, they will inch closer as the weeks go by.
In particular, the Twins’ pitching really has us old. Opponents are still hitting just .236 against their starting and bullpen arms despite all the injuries. If Minnesota gets its full stable of pitchers back—or something resembling it—on the back end of the All-Star break, they could actually wind up running away with this thing, much to the chagrin of Chicago and Cleveland.
SBS Prediction: Minnesota Twins (+105)
Take a look at this list of the top online sportsbooks so you can decide which one to use for all of your 2022 MLB betting:
About the Author
Around the age of 12, Dan realized, sadly, he’d never become a professional basketball player. It turns out people under 6’0” who can’t dribble or shoot aren’t touted prospects. Who knew?! Anyway, once it became clear he could play professional sports, he figured the next best thing to do was cover them. So, that’s what he did. And continues to do. Dan has worked in the pro sports analysis industry since 2011, giving him almost 15 years total experience. Though started out covering and continues to be enamored by the NBA, he has spent the past decade or so expanding his expertise and analysis to the NFL, NHL, MLB, tennis, esports and golf. Over the past few years, Dan has cannonballed into full-on sports betting news coverage. He remains fascinated by the impact the legalization of gambling in the United States is having on the country. It has, in so many ways, changed everything about how we consume sports. Is that good? Bad? Does it all even out in the end? His coverage has always and will continue trying to reconcile the duality of this industry, pro sports at large and their influence. In his spare time, Dan enjoys honing his weightlifting, eating enough sweet potatoes to feed a rather large family, binge-watching his all-time favorite shows (Psych is the goat!) and hanging out with his three dogs, all of whom are Cockaliers, Thor, Wade and Cosmo. Typically, though, if he’s not eating or sleeping, Dan is watching or covering sports—and loving basically every minute of it.
Read Dan's ProfileAsk Dan about this guide:
