2022 AL MVP odds: Vlad Jr. favored over recent winners Trout, Ohtani

It took a season unlike any we've seen in MLB history to prevent Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from winning his first AL MVP award. Oddsmakers don't expect such a hurdle this time around.

The Blue Jays star slugger is the +300 favorite to win the award in 2022 after finishing as the AL runner-up last year. Right behind him is three-time winner Mike Trout (+375) and reigning MVP Shohei Ohtani (+400), whose two-way exploits carried him past Guerrero in an epic race.

Here are the current odds to win the 2022 AL MVP at Barstool Sportsbook:

Guerrero nearly hit for the triple crown in 2021, finishing third in the AL in batting average (.311) and leading the league in on-base percentage (.401) and slugging (.601). He also clobbered an MLB-best 48 home runs, the most ever by a player 22 or younger, and led all of baseball in runs (123) and total bases (363).

Still, he fell short against Ohtani, who is positioned to build upon his stellar 2021 campaign. The two-way star hit 46 homers while posting a 3.18 ERA with a 9-2 record in 23 starts. He'll almost certainly play both ways again in 2022, but he'll likely have to clear his otherworldly numbers from last year to repeat as MVP.

Don't forget about Trout, the winner of this award in three of the past eight seasons. The last time the Angels star opened at longer than +200 to win MVP was in 2014, when he cashed as a +500 preseason favorite. He's been favored in every year since, though last year's injury-marred season and the emergence of his teammate has knocked him off the perch heading into his 12th MLB season.

There's a big drop off after those three, with Bo Bichette (+1600), Rafael Devers (+1800), and Corey Seager (+1800) the only players priced shorter than +2000. Further down the board is Jose Ramirez (+2200), who finished sixth in 2021 and has three top-three finishes in recent years, and 2020 AL MVP Jose Abreu (+2200) - just ahead of teammate Luis Robert (+2800), whose raw power makes him an intriguing dark-horse candidate.

Keep an eye on a pair of Tampa Bay teammates, too. Former mega-prospect Wander Franco (+3300) looked every bit as good as his No. 1 ranking would suggest in his first season with the Rays and seems destined to win an MVP at some point, if not this season. Teammate Randy Arozarena (+6000) has looked like the best player in baseball at times during the postseason, but the reigning Rookie of the Year is yet to channel that full superstardom into the regular season.

C Jackson Cowart is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on Twitter (@CJacksonCowart) or email him at cjackson.cowart@thescore.com.