According to ESPN BET, the Dodgers are the favorites to repeat as champions. The Giants are tied for 19th-best odds.
After winning 98 games and ruthlessly vanquishing the New York Yankees in the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers open as heavy favorites to repeat as champions. As for the San Francisco Giants, ESPN’s sports book thinks they’re a serious longshot.
The top teams in the initial World Series odds for 2025 are the teams that just played in the World Series in 2024. ESPN Bet has the Dodgers at +400, meaning a bet on the Dodgers to repeat would pay out at 4-to-1. That’s a 25% chance, pretty significant in a league that has 30 teams. The Yankees are next at +700, followed closely by the Atlanta Braves at +750 and the Philadelphia Phillies at 10-to-1. The trio of the Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, and New York Mets round out the top seven with 12-to-1 odds.
As for the orange and black, they’re way down at 19th place, tied with their frequent trading partner, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Giants are 50-to-1 to win it all, and a proportional 25-to-1 to win the National League. In the immortal words of Lloyd Christmas, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!”
Of course, a great deal can change from the end of October to the beginning of the season. The Giants haven’t even finished second in the race to sign Juan Soto yet! We’ve already seen the hot stove league sputter to a very low flame with the Braves trading Giants legend Jorge Soler to the Los Angeles Angels Thursday. There’s countless trades, signings, non-roster invitations, surprise surgeries, and arbitration hearings ahead of us before we know what major league teams will look like on Opening Day.
If you think about it, 50-to-1 odds aren’t all that negative. If all major league teams were equally talented, everyone would be 30-to-1 to win it all, which happens to be the World Series odds for the Arizona Diamondbacks. To round out the NL West, the San Diego Padres are 15-to-1 and the Colorado Rockies are 400-to-1 to win it all. That’s tied for the worst odds in baseball with the 121-loss Chicago White Sox, disrespect that should light a fire under the Rockies and inspire them to at least 65 wins.
But this could be a great opportunity to get in on the Giants bandwagon while the price is still low, before Blake Snell resigns, Tyler Fitzgerald puts on 15 pounds of muscle, Willy Adames decides he loves Golden Boy Pizza and wine tasting in Napa, and Camilo Doval does six months of therapy with a sports psychologist.
There are certainly worse investments than betting on the Giants at 50-to-1 odds. Like giving Mitch Haniger a multi-year deal. Or turning one of your parking lots into a mixed-used development just before global pandemic. Still, just like last winter’s free agent market, expect most of the money to be on the Dodgers.