The Padres Blake Snell made it four straight seasons that a different pitcher cashed in on the NL Cy Young Award odds. He did so as an attractive +3500 underdog to boot which paid handsomely for MLB bettors with the foresight to jump on his bandwagon right when he started showing signs. The Giants Logan Webb placed with 17 second place votes, while Zac Gallen showed with 11 third place votes; each did however garner a lone first place vote. Both arms rank out as favorites to take home bragging rights at Caesars Sportsbook in 2024 with the Braves Spencer Strider (+600) leading the pack. Jacob deGrom is the last chalk favorite to cash in on the NL Cy Young odds over the last five seasons, so this baseball betting market has proven to be lucrative for astute baseball bettors to decipher and pinpoint the big payoff early on. As such, here are my favorite, underdog, and longshot recommendations to take fliers on in the National League before Opening Day with the sole intent of adding more intrigue to the 2024 MLB betting season.

Bet NL Cy Young Award Odds at Caesars Sportsbook

*Remaining Players all 10-1 or greater

Favorite to Bet: Justin Steele +2000

I attached my wagon to Corbin Burnes last season with the expectation that the former Cy Young Award winner would add more hardware to his mantelpiece. It didn’t come to fruition with the burly right-hander only amassing 10 wins and his WAR, FIP, K/9 and K/BB ratio regressing. With the ultimate winner of the award coming from off the beaten path in recent seasons, I’m shying away from the chalk favorites on the MLB odds and hitching my wagon to none other than Justin Steele who put forth a career campaign last year in his third go-round in the league. Chicago’s staff ace was voted to his first All-Star game and also finished fifth in Cy Young voting garnering one second place vote, two third place votes, eight fourth place votes, and six fifth place votes by way of going 16-5 with a career-best 3.06 ERA and impressive 167:36 K/BB ratio over 173.1 total innings.

Tough to square up evidenced by a 36.6 percent ideal contact rate (#44) and 12.7 swinging strike percentage (#65) per Pitcher List, Steele portrayed himself as one of the more trustful arms in the National League due to his propensity to leave runners on base (73%) via the strikeout (9.1 K/9) while serving up a ton of worm burners upon his infield evidenced by a 52.5 groundball rate. Of his 30 made starts, 20 were of the quality variety. That’s special folks! The hope is that last season was just the beginning of continued dominance on the Northside. He’ll be throwing for a decent Chicago Cubs team expected to fight tooth and nail with the Cardinals and Reds for NL Central bragging rights keeping him in the spotlight in high pressure situations.

Underdog to Bet: Walker Buehler +5000

Though a timetable for his return to the bump is yet to be ironed out, Walker Buehler will return to the Bigs off a year-plus hiatus after going under the knife for Tommy John surgery. Last we saw the right-handed thoroughbred in live action, Buehler went 6-3 with a 4.02 ERA and 58:17 K/BB ratio through 65.0 total innings of work. His 8.0 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 9.3 hits per nine were some of the worst outputs of his six-year career. There was a reason for it however. Now said to be fully healed from the surgery and ready to go – once given the green light – I fully expect No. 21 to get right back to his dominant ways that saw him routinely strike batters out, keep the ball in the yard, and lead the Dodgers to victories.

And that’s just it. Buehler is arguably the best pitcher in the starting rotation – settle down Yoshinobu Yamamoto supporters – and throws for a Los Angeles Dodgers team that sports a 103.5 win total that just so happens to be the running +300 favorite to cash in on the World Series odds at Caesars sportsbook. There’s simply just too much meat on the bone at this offering to not take a shot on a guy that finished fourth in Cy Young Award voting the last time he was healthy.

Longshot to Bet: Michael King +10000

Nestled in behind Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish as the Friars No. 3 starter, Michael King is expected to jump right into a starters role for his new team. While everyone is fawning about all the home runs Juan Soto will hit in Yankee Stadium, it’s the powerful right-hander’s 95 MPH heat and low 80s curve that really excites me knowing how well he performed when turned into a starter for New York last season. In the pitcher’s haven that Petco is, that could see him pick right back up where he left off after amassing a 4-8 record, 2.75 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 127 strikeouts through just short of 105 innings.

Linemakers expect the San Diego Padres to be a .500 team with it the owner of an 81-game win total and +200 to qualify for the playoffs at Caesars. This team grossly underachieved a season ago only winning 82 games to miss the playoffs yet still produced last year’s winner on the NL Cy Young futures odds. Fingers crossed new manager Mike Shildt squeezes all the right buttons to get the most juice out of his berries and the team takes the field with a collective chip on its shoulder. Should that happen, it will set the stage for someone on the roster to come out of nowhere and make a huge impact. Why not this 100-1 underdog?!

Bet MLB Futures Odds at Caesars Sportsbook