MLB Odds: Red Sox Outfielder Quickly Becomes Rookie Of The Year Favorite

The Boston Red Sox haven’t had the greatest collective start to their 2023 season, but that doesn’t appear to be having much of an effect on individual players.

The Red Sox have dropped four of their first seven games, but bounced back from a series sweep to the Pittsburgh Pirates with a win over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Thursday. A major contributor to that victory was Masataka Yoshida, who helped improve his already solid season totals.

He also found himself atop the odds board for American League Rookie of the Year candidates at FanDuel Sportsbook on Thursday afternoon.

AL Rookie of the Year
Masataka Yoshida +400
Gunnar Henderson +400
Anthony Volpe +450
Grayson Rodriguez +950
Josh Jung +1600
Triston Casas +1600

Yoshida went 2-for-3 with a walk and scored one of the Red Sox’s runs against the Tigers. That pushed his season slash line to .250/.344/.393 with one home run and six RBIs. The 29-year-old isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but his place on the list has to do with the fact that he’s outperforming most of those players.

In fact, most of those bats haven’t been very good at all. Henderson is currently batting .125 for the Orioles, while Volpe has a -0.1 WAR for the Yankees, Casas is batting .158 for the Red Sox. Jung has been solid for the Rangers, slashing .318/.375/.636, but he tailed off significantly last year. Rodriguez has only made one start for Baltimore.

It’s way too early to stop the count, but Yoshida has certainly been one of the top rookies in the AL this season. That’s why his number has jumped from +600 to +400 in just a week’s worth of games.

There’s no way of knowing whether he wins the award, but there are two things for certain. First, it’s time to start shopping for the best number, and second, baseball fans definitely getting that AL East ROTY race we promised you.