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Christopher Boan is a writer at OntarioBets.com. He's covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Yusei Kikuchi Trade Rumors: Odds of Blue Jays Pitcher’s Next Team
The trade deadline closing in for Major League Baseball and it’s worth watching for Ontario sports betting customers. Now is the time for contenders and pretenders to make a final call as to whether they’re all-in on a championship quest or whether they want to blow up their MLB roster and start anew with 2025 in mind.
Canada’s lone MLB franchise, the Toronto Blue Jays, sit at 49-56 and last in the American League East. So general manager Ross Atkins will likely turn the page on the season and part with several assets – one of which is veteran left-handed pitcher Yusei Kikuchi.
With that in mind, OntarioBets.com broke down some hypothetical odds on which MLB team Kikuchi will be pitching for after Tuesday’s deadline comes and goes. An NL stalwart atop our odds, which are exclusive to OntarioBets and are not available at Ontario sportsbook apps.
Yusei Kikuchi Trade Rumors
Team | Percentage Chance | Odds |
Los Angeles Dodgers | 20.0% | +400 |
Minnesota Twins | 18.2% | +450 |
Houston Astros | 18.2% | +450 |
San Diego Padres | 14.3% | +600 |
Boston Red Sox | 12.5% | +700 |
The Field / Stay with Blue Jays | 16.7% | +500 |
Kikuchi, 33, has posted a 36-46 record with a 4.72 ERA in 156 games as a Major League pitcher. He is in his third season in Canada’s most populous city.
Kikuchi is in the final season of his three-year, $36 million deal, meaning he’ll be an unrestricted free agent this offseason. That gives Atkins further carte blanche to get whatever he can for the veteran southpaw before Tuesday’s deadline. See Toronto Blue Jays playoff odds as Toronto tries to hang on to any semblance of postseason hope.
Which Team Will Kikuchi Pitch For Next?
Right now, we see the Los Angeles Dodgers as the proverbial frontrunner to swing a deal for Kikuchi, with +400 odds of the Japanese southpaw joining countrymen Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in 2024.
Other teams on our list are the Minnesota Twins and Houston Astros (+450 apiece), San Diego Padres (+600) and Boston Red Sox (+700).
Whichever team does land Kikuchi is getting a player who had his best MLB season a year ago, with an 11-6 record and 3.86 ERA (for a 1.8 WAR) in 32 starts with the Blue Jays. He has not replicated that success in 2024 so far (4-9, 4.75) but he still could give league GMs hope of reclaiming decent success if he should leave the last-place Jays. Toronto has +37500 odds to win the 2024 World Series at Caesars Ontario Sportsbook as of July 29.
USA Today photo by John E. Sokolowski
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