The Los Angeles Angels will not trade Shohei Ohtani at the MLB trade deadline.

Instead, they’ve gone all-in to make a playoff push.

Late last night, SI’s Tom Verducci revealed that the Angels were taking Ohtani off the trade market and instead shifting their focus to chasing a postseason spot.

A couple of hours later, the Angels acquired Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez from the Chicago White Sox in a trade that sent two of their top prospects the other way.

Los Angeles is four games back of the final American League Wild Card spot heading into a crucial stretch before the MLB trade deadline.

If the Angels can make a serious push this week, then perhaps they can find themselves back in the thick of contention for an AL Wild Card spot on August 1st.

If the Angels struggle in today’s double-header against the Detroit Tigers and this weekend’s series against the Toronto Blue Jays, it will be a much different story. 

This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday July 27th, 2023.

 

Angels Commit To Postseason Push With Ohtani

All eyes were on the Angels to see what they would do at this year’s MLB trade deadline.

While the consensus always appeared to be that they would keep Ohtani through the season, that didn’t stop the hype when it came to hypothetical trade scenarios for the biggest star in baseball.

Within a few hours late last night, it became very clear that for better or worse, LA was serious about keeping Ohtani and making a postseason push.

The Angels traded two top prospects to acquire a starting pitcher in Giolito and a reliever in Lopez.

With just five days to go before the MLB trade deadline, it’s clearly a risky move for a team that is four games back of a Wild Card spot.

Los Angeles is 100-to-1 to win the World Series at FanDuel.

19 teams have shorter odds to win it all than the Angels.

LA is 50-to-1 to win the AL West and +750 to win the AL.

Meanwhile, anyone with a bet on Ohtani to win AL MVP can breathe a lot easier this morning knowing that he won’t be traded to a National League team.

Ohtani is down to -1450 to win AL MVP at FanDuel this morning.

No other player has shorter than 25-to-1 odds to win that award.

 The Angels decided to go all-in to make a playoff push in what could be Ohtani’s final season with the franchise.

It will be very interesting to see how that bet plays out.

 

Nigeria Stuns Australia At Women’s World Cup

We’ll get to this morning’s FanDuel Best Bet in just a minute.

First, let’s talk about the massive developing story from the Women’s World Cup.

Nigeria stunned Australia with a 3-2 win at +750 to win that game outright at FanDuel.

All of a sudden, Canada’s group stage finale versus Australia will have some major implications.

Stay tuned for the updated match odds for Canada versus Australia at FanDuel.

Canada, Australia and Nigeria all remain in contention for first place in Group B heading into MatchDay 3. 

 

A FanDuel Best Bet For Thursday’s MLB Slate

The Chicago Cubs delivered a fantastic comeback win over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday to help us earn a split with the FanDuel Best Bets in yesterday’s column.

Let’s try to lock in an MLB winner this morning with a relatively light schedule of games.

I’ll make the No Run First Inning bet in tonight’s game between the Cleveland Guardians and the Chicago White Sox my FanDuel Best Bet.

Guardians’ starter Tanner Bibee has posted a sparking 1.14 ERA in four starts in the month of July.

That run includes seven shutout innings in a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in his most recent start.

The White Sox will counter with Dylan Cease, who’s allowed exactly one earned run in each of his past two starts against the Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins.

Both teams are hitting the NRFI at a 70 per cent rate or better this season.

I’ll take the NRFI in the first of a four-game set between Cleveland and Chicago as my FanDuel Best Bet.

Good luck to anyone who tails!