If the Detroit Tigers are going to make noise in 2026, they’re going to have to do it from the middle of the pack—at least according to the early betting markets. BetMGM released its opening 2026 World Series odds, and the Tigers check in at +2500, sitting behind a dozen clubs and firmly in the “interesting but unproven” category. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers have already been handed the inside lane before a single free-agent deal has been announced.
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As BetMGM’s Shane Thurston wrote in the site’s outlook for next season, “Fresh off an epic 2025 Fall Classic, the Los Angeles Dodgers begin as the betting favorites to win it all next year.” The Dodgers are listed at +350, a sizable gap ahead of the next tier of contenders. And why not? They’re coming off back-to-back championships, have the reigning World Series MVP in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and remain the sport’s deepest roster on paper.
Detroit, on the other hand, enters the offseason with more questions than answers. Tigers fans know better than anyone that the promise of a young core only goes as far as the front office is willing to push it. So far, the Tigers have been quiet on the free-agent front, minus the rumors of being tied to closers like Edwin Diaz and Devin Williams. With that, the silence is reflected in the odds, it seems like.
That doesn’t mean the Tigers are being dismissed entirely. Their +2500 slot puts them ahead of several playoff hopefuls, including Baltimore and Cleveland, and right in the mix with teams such as Milwaukee and the Cubs. But the gap between Detroit and the legitimate favorites is still wide. As BetMGM summarized, “World Series odds for the 2026 MLB season are already available… with the Dodgers defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2025 Fall Classic” before immediately staking their claim as the most complete club in baseball.
Detroit hasn’t earned that label yet, not without reinforcing its lineup and addressing the swing-and-miss issues that buried stretches of their 2025 offense. They’ll also need a defensive upgrade up the middle and a more stable back-end of the bullpen. Those are acquisition-dependent realities, not internal wishes.
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Still, the middle tier is a workable starting point. Teams with similar odds have surged before, and odds are snapshots, not verdicts. If the Tigers land even one impact bat or leverage a deep pitching pipeline into a meaningful trade, the +2500 number becomes a lot more interesting.
But that’s the entire point of BetMGM dropping these odds early: they aren’t forecasting what Detroit could become, they’re evaluating what Detroit is right now. And at this moment, Detroit hasn’t made a statement. The Dodgers have. The Yankees, Phillies, Astros and Mariners have the track records. The Blue Jays, even after a crushing Game 7 loss, are sitting respectably at +2000.
The Tigers? They’re hovering in the hopeful middle, waiting for Scott Harris and company to make the type of moves that shift perception—and maybe reality.
Until then, the road to October runs straight through Los Angeles, whether anyone likes it or not.
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