MLB Odds: Former UCLA Teammates Gerrit Cole, Trevor Bauer Dominating Cy Young Betting

Former UCLA teammates lead the way in the Cy Young betting

Mar 4 2021, 6:11am | 4 min read

Share

Share to Facebook

Share to Twitter

Copy Link

Once upon a time, Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer were teammates at UCLA. Now, the two are dominating the Cy Young betting market. Both lead their respective leagues in percentage of bets placed on them.

Trevor Bauer

Trevor Bauer is the reigning NL Cy Young award winner. He had a dominant season in 2020 for the Cincinnati Reds, which led to the largest AAV contract in MLB history. It’s fair to say that expectations are high for Bauer.

Well, bettors expect Bauer to live up to his lofty contract. 27% of bettors over the past week have been placed on Bauer to win the NL Cy Young. New York Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom is bettors’ second favorite with 20% of bets over the last week.

Oddsmakers also see Bauer as a strong contender for the award giving him +800 odds, second only to Jacob deGrom’s +500.

2021 NL CY YOUNG WINNER ODDS

Pitcher Name	Odds
Jacob deGrom	+500
Trevor Bauer	+800
Max Scherzer	+1000
Walker Buehler	+1000
Aaron Nola	+1200

Gerrit Cole

Meanwile, Gerrit Cole is the owner of the largest contract in MLB history. A contract he earned on the field by finishing top-five in AL Cy Young voting in back-to-back years. In 2020, Cole backed that up with his third straight top-five finish. However, Cole has never won a Cy Young award.

That isn’t stopping the bets from pouring in. 41% of AL Cy Young votes over the past week have been placed on the ace of the New York Yankees.

Cole is the favorite to win the award with +350 odds, but he has an uphill battle to climb to win the award. He’s never had an era below 2.50, his FIP in 2020 was 3.89, and Cole has to contend with a below-average defense behind him. For Cole to win the AL Cy Young he’d need to have a career year.