2022 MLB Season Kick Off: Rating The Toronto Blue Jays
We’re nearly a month into the new MLB season, and MLB betting fans at Bodog are in full swing for this batting season. We’ve already got a feel for which teams are looking strong this year, and it’s all smiles at the Blue Jays.
For Canada’s only team in Major League Baseball, 2022 is an opportunity to forget about the woes of last season when the Blue Jays were just one win shy of a spot in the playoffs. That was all the more painful since they started out so well by beating the Texas Rangers in their first game and going 2-1 by the end of the opening weekend.
Nevertheless, the Blue Jays are one of Canada’s most popular sports teams, and they have the entire country behind them in their quest to take glory in the World Series. With 2022 being the full first season back at the Rogers Centre, Charlie Montoyo and his men will be doing all they can to make the Canadian fans proud.
MLB Betting: Toronto Blue Jays Preview
Here at Bodog, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the Toronto Blue Jays’ betting odds and how they stack up against their closest rivals. Can they mount a title challenge in 2022? Let’s take a sneak beak.
Past Performances
Last year was a disappointing one for the Blue Jays. It’s not because they performed particularly badly, but because they had a decent regular season but still missed out on a playoff spot.
Finishing the season 91-71, they were one win behind the Red Sox and the Yankees in the AL East. Both teams finished 92-70, grabbing the two wild card spots for the conference. That same record would have been enough to make it to the playoffs in the National League, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes in baseball.
Of course, the Blue Jays made it into the playoffs in 2020, but that truncated season isn’t the best metric for comparison. The team didn’t make it much further than they did in 2021 since they were ejected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card Round.
Before then, the last time we saw the Blue Jays in the playoffs was way back in 2016 when the Canadian side made it to the Championship Series before being beaten by Cleveland.
Star Players
The Toronto Blue Jays roster looks very different from how it did six years ago. Back then, there was a talented but ageing core of players, all of whom have since flown the nest.
After a few years with some obvious gaps in the lineup, the Canadian side has built a strong team of young, hungry, and skilled players.
The biggest name of all is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who, at just 23, is one of the top hitters in the entire league. The Canadian, originally from Montreal, signed for the Blue Jays back in 2015 despite making his MLB debut in 2019. Last year, he was the MLB home run leader; won the Silver Slugger, AL Hank Aaron, and Tip O’Neill Awards, and was named to the All-Star game, if you don’t mind. With what’s shaping up to be a very promising career ahead of him, we expect to see even bigger things from Guerrero Jr. in 2022.
Another star is Bo Bichette, a Floridian shortstop who has been with the Blue Jays since mid-2019. Bichette was another top hitter last year, but he’s also on something of a roll when it comes to defensive errors, which is a feature he’s carried into the current season. It’s something he needs to rein in, but we’ll hold back while he settles into his game afresh before we flag deeper concernz.
Other key names to look out for are Hernandez, Gurriel Jr., Romano, and Manoah, a young core who’s backed up by some old hands in Gausman, Ryu, Chapman, Berrios, and Springer. Together, they make one of the strongest teams in the league, and one that could take the Blue Jays to some lofty perches.
Season Ambitions
In sharp relief of the disappointments of last season, and more broadly, the persistent floundering in the bottom half of the division for much of the last five years, the Blue Jays flew into the 2022 season with some of the best MLB odds in the entire league.
That’s not a glitch in the Matrix: they really are the odds that the Toronto Blue Jays have earned themselves in skill, play and potential. For 2022, it is a genuine prospect that Canada’s only MLB team could become World Series winners, and there are several arguments to be made in its favour.
Firstly, being back at home at the Rogers Centre is going to make a natural difference, giving the Blue Jays a home field advantage they haven’t enjoyed for nearly two years.
In the death throes of last season, we saw the team really step up to the plate, emerging victorious in all of its “must-win” matches, and looking noticeably better than they did earlier in the year. This, as we’ve touched on, is thanks in part to the fact that its fresh blood beginning to pump new life into the Jays’ roster.
In fact, it would be more than surprising if the Blue Jays weren’t comfortably pushing away from the middle of the pack in the 2022 MLB playoff bracket.
Blue Jay Betting With Bodog
We’re suitably self-satisfied to report that the Blue Jays’ MLB betting odds are the strongest they’ve been for an awfully long time.
They’re not just favourites to win the AL East division with odds of +130, compared to +250 of the New York Yankees and +275 of the Tampa Bay Rays: the Blue Jays are also favourites for bringing home the bacon by winning the entire American League at +300.
In fact, they couldn’t possibly fly much higher at this point, having the privilege of second-to-best odds (+750) for the World Series behind only the LA Dodgers (+475).
MLB betting isn’t just about futures. The Toronto Blue Jays’ betting odds also look pretty strong for the bulk of the team’s upcoming games, evidently having what it takes to stay at the top of the AL East.
There are just the earlybird signs that 2022 is going to be a much chirpier season for the Blue Jays. Canadian fans looking to back a local team can fill up their slips at Bodog with confidence that Toronto has a baseball team who are genuine contenders for the World Series.
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