With spring training soon to begin, we are moving closer to the Major League Baseball regular season and the Ontario sports betting excitement that it provides.
It made us wonder, which MLB team has done the best job at drafting and keeping talent in their city, and with their clubs? Using the FanGraphs website, we found how many players on each MLB team were homegrown (in other words, drafted or signed by their present team) on projected 40-man rosters for 2024. Here is what we found, and the Toronto Blue Jays made the top 10.
MLB Teams with Most Homegrown Talent
Who Has Most Homegrown MLB Players?
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The Cleveland Guardians led the way, with 25 homegrown players (62.5% of the projected 40-man roster). Players such as Jose Ramirez, Shane Bieber, Tristan McKenzie and Will Brennan will help pace the Guardians, who have 4.75 decimal odds to win the American League Central division, according to 888 Sport Ontario Sportsbook as of Tuesday morning. The Minnesota Twins are the favourites to win that division, at 1.80.
How Blue Jays Stack Up For Homegrown Talent
As for the Toronto Blue Jays? The team is at a crossroads because two key homegrown cogs, shortstop Bo Bichette and first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., are fast approaching their free agent years. Bichette will make $16.5 million through 2025. Guerrero Jr. just won salary arbitration – he was awarded $19.9 million on a one-year term. His UFA season is also 2026.
For several seasons, the direction for the franchise has been to build the roster around those two young stars. That has produced consecutive wild cars berths but the Jays have not had the playoff success that everyone has hoped to see.
According to 888 Sport, the Jays have 5.75 odds to win the AL East, behind the New York Yankees (2.45) and Baltimore Orioles (3.00). Toronto is also well behind the leaders in World Series odds. BetMGM Ontario Sportsbook has the Jays at 21.00, behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (4.60), Atlanta Braves (7.00), Houston Astros (9.50), Yankees (10.00) and defending World Series champion Texas Rangers (12.00). Other teams ahead of the Jays are the Orioles (14.00) and Philadelphia Phillies (15.00), with the Seattle Mariners tied with Toronto at 21.00.
The Jays are tied for the No. 10 spot on our homegrown chart, with 17 players (42.5%) on the projected 40-man, according to FanGraphs.com.
Bichette is a threat to win a batting title, and we’re seeing signs this offseason that he is truly growing into a team leadership role. As he said during a radio interview with Sportsnet, excuses that come with youth and inexperience are now out the window. The team is in a win-now mode and NorthStar Bets Ontario Sportsbook has them at 1.56 odds to make the playoffs (and 2.35 to miss).
Last season, the Jays won three fewer games than in 2022 and went out feebly to the Minnesota Twins with a two-game sweep in the Wild Card series.
The Jays just signed Justin Turner to a contract, but he wasn’t the big bat observers felt the Jays would go after this offseason. That means a lot of expectation is going to be placed on the shoulders of Guerrero Jr., who has regressed from his 2021 MVP-calibre season. He clubbed 48 homers and had a 1.002 OPS that year, but in 2023 he had 26 HRs, 94 RBIs and a .788 OPS in 602 at-bats.
Alek Manoah will also be in the spotlight after a 2023 season that saw the 6-foot-6, 285-pound righthander sent to the minors twice. Manoah was in the Cy Young Award conversation in 2022 after going 16-7 with a 2.24 ERA and 180 strikeouts in 196.2 innings. Last season, he fell off the rails, going 3-9 with a 5.87 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 87.1 innings. MLB.com reported Tuesday that Manoah is the favourite for the No. 5 starter job.
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