For the second straight season, the New York Yankees have underwhelmed out of the gates. Sure, the Yanks are sitting tied atop the AL East standings with the Toronto Blue Jays at 7-5, but the general sentiment around the Bronx Bombers is that this doesn’t look like a team that will contend for a World Series, especially in such a deep division.

Just a few weeks into the season World Series odds have the Yankees down to +1100.

It goes without saying that a dozen games in April won’t make or break an MLB season. The Yankees still have 150 more games to go and by the time we get to the middle of summer, this season could have gone 100 different directions. But if this pedestrian start feels familiar, it’s because Yankee fans watched a very similar script play out last season, when the Bombers looked sluggish through the first three months before turning it on and nabbing a Wild Card spot.

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And just like last season, the brunt of the blame from fans is falling at the feet of the offense. League-wide, the Yankees rank 17th with a .299 wOBA, 15th with a 99 wRC+, and 16th with a .306 OBP — in other words, bang average.

Fortunately, the pitching staff has been terrific. The Yankees rank fourth in the MLB with a 2.52 ERA and seventh with a 3.44 xFIP. That second number does suggest that some negative regression will come for the staff, but it’s still been a splendid two weeks for Aaron Boone’s staff. 

The problem is that if that regression does come or the staff goes cold, the Yankees offense hasn’t shown the ability to bail it out. At least not yet. 

While it is still way too early for bookmakers to adjust teams in the future market — the Yanks are still +1100 to win the World Series at BetMGM — it is worth keeping in mind how oddsmakers handled the Yankees last season. Always careful to over-adjust a public darling like the Bombers, the Yanks slowly drifted in the futures market throughout the summer. Around mid-July, the Yankees were around +2200 to World Series, as they were falling out of the Wild Card Race. At that point, the Yanks started to show signs of a turnaround and were able to finally put things together to make a run to the postseason.

Betting on the 2022 MLB Season?

Will we see something similar again this season? Who knows. Currently, the best odds on the market for the Yankees are +1200 on FanDuel. This is tied with their cross-town rival, New York Mets.

if you’re someone interested in adding a Yankees ticket to your portfolio, you may as well sit back and wait.