AL/NL Rookie of the Year odds: Suzuki, Pena riding hot starts to MLB careers

On Monday, we highlighted the biggest early stars and slow starters in the MVP race in each league. This time, we'll take a look at which players have ripped off hot starts in pursuit of Rookie of the Year honors - and which have struggled to keep up with big-league competition.

Here are the odds to win Rookie of the Year in each league at Barstool Sportsbook, along with some early stars and slow starters to keep an eye on:

Early stars

Seiya Suzuki (-112)

Forget about just rookies - few players in the majors have had a hotter start to the season than Suzuki, who leads all qualified batters in OPS (1.180) and wOBA (.498) after an electric 16 games for the Cubs.

It helps that the 27-year-old batter is so patient at the plate; his walk rate (20.6%) ranks second in all of baseball and has helped prop up an MLB-best .492 on-base percentage, though a 20.6% strikeout rate leaves something to be desired. Still, no rookie has come close to what the preseason favorite has done at the plate through three weeks, and it's his award to lose at this rate.

Steven Kwan (+700)

Perhaps the biggest story in baseball through the first week was Kwan, who tore up spring training before producing some of the most mind-boggling stats ever to start his MLB career.

The Guardians rookie reached base 15 times in his first four career games - something no player had done in the live-ball era - and somehow went five-plus games and 116 pitches before his first swing and miss. Predictably, he cooled off from his initial .667/.750/.933 slash line over those five games, but he still owns a .956 OPS on the year, which leads all qualified AL rookies.

Jeremy Pena (+1100)

If the first half of this month belonged to Kwan, the second half has been all about Pena, who's quickly making Astros fans forget about that "other" shortstop and former Rookie of the Year winner.

Houston's newest bat doesn't have quite the resume at the dish, though he still ranks second among AL rookies in OPS (.811) and is tied for first place with three home runs - including a walk-off blast to down the Blue Jays on Sunday. He's also been a revelation in the field, posting the highest FanGraphs defense rating (3.9) of any player in the majors to bolster his AL-best 1.0 WAR among rookies.

Slow starts

Bobby Witt Jr. (+275)

It's hard to imagine a much worse start for Witt, who is still the favorite to win the AL Rookie of the Year despite a disastrous introduction to big-league stuff.

After entering this season as the top prospect in baseball and hitting .406 in spring training, the 21-year-old has posted a laughably bad .185/.214/.278 slash line with zero home runs and just four extra-base hits in his first 14 games. Just how bad is that? Among the 61 rookies with at least one plate appearance, Witt ranks 59th in FanGraphs' offense rating (-3.7).

There's time for Witt to turn it around, especially with how well he's manned the middle infield for the Royals. But he'll need to start showing some power (or anything, really) at the plate to justify this short price.

Bryson Stott (+2000)

The Phillies had big plans for Stott when they promoted him to the big-league roster ahead of Opening Day. So far, the team's No. 1 prospect and top-50 MLB prospect has failed to live up to those expectations in a big way.

The former first-round pick was optioned to the minors on Monday after hitting .131 through nine games and going hitless in his last 18 at-bats before the team benched him over the past week. He ranked dead last among qualified rookies in OBP (.161) and wOBA (.151) and was second-to-last in OPS (.328) and fWAR (-0.3) before the demotion, which is a brutal hit to his ROY stock.

C Jackson Cowart is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on Twitter (@CJacksonCowart) or email him at [email protected].