2024 MLB Awards: Best bets to win NL MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year

Major League Baseball has arrived. Opening Day's first pitch is Thursday as all 30 teams will be in action.

The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers have already played a pair of regular-season games in Seoul, South Korea, to begin their seasons. The teams split the two games.

For now, the New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers will be kicking things off Thursday afternoon at Citi Field with first pitch slated for 1:10 p.m. in Queens, weather permitting.

With the season now upon us, there's no better time to take a peek at the last-minute major awards in each league when it comes to Most Valuable Player, CY Young and Rookie of the Year (ROY) odds.

Here are the current top-10 odd-on-favorites and my predictions on who will win each of these three categories in the National League for the 2024 regular season:

2024 National League MVP odds and prediction:

Ronald Acuna Jr.: +525 (Bet $100 to win $525)

Mookie Betts: +750 (Bet $100 to win $750)

Shohei Ohtani: +950 (Bet $100 to win $950)

Fernando Tatis Jr: +1100 (Bet $100 to win $1,100)

Freddie Freeman: +1200 (Bet $100 to win $1,200)

Bryce Harper: +1300 (Bet $100 to win $1,300)

Matt Olson: +1500 (Bet $100 to win $1,500)

Corbin Carroll and Trea Turner: +2200 (Bet $100 to win $2,200)

Austin Riley: +2500 (Bet $100 to win $2,500)

Acuna Jr, the reigning NL MVP, is unsurprisingly the odds-on-favorite to repeat after posting a career year in which he recorded 40 home runs, 108 RBI and a league-leading 73 stolen bases while slashing .337/.416/1.012.

There's no doubt the Braves' superstar outfielder is arguably one of the best, if not the best, players in all of baseball like he proved last season.

However, there are a few red flags I see here.

Prior to 2023, Acuna Jr. had appeared in 156-plus games just once, which was all the way back in 2019.

It was also the first time the 26-year-old hit .300 better, as his previous highest batting average was .293 in his rookie season in 2018.

He's already had an injury scare in spring training where he suffered a knee injury, though he has been cleared for Opening Day.

When it comes to this year's NL MVP, my pick is Ohtani.

The two-time AL MVP is currently dealing with the drama with his now former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara after he was fired among allegations of $4.5 million theft from Ohtani to take care of his sports gambling debts.

Even though it's uncertain when and what result will come of this, I believe the 29-year-old, who denied any wrongdoing in this situation, will flourish with his new opportunity going from a struggling Angels organization to the star-studded Dodgers lineup.

Since he won't be pitching at all this season due to undergoing his second Tommy John surgery last September, I believe Ohtani will take his heights to a new level now as he focuses on just hitting this upcoming year.

With players on this list like Betts and Freeman surrounding him in the lineup, Ohtani is in prime position to have his second 100-plus RBI season, nearing the 50-homer plateau all while hitting around or above .300 and stealing double digit bases.

I believe as long as there's no type of suspension looming around Ohtani, he'll join Frank Robinson as the only players in MLB history to win MVP in both leagues.

The best value for Ohtani to win the NL MVP is at +950 on FanDuel Sportsbook.

2024 National League CY Young odds and prediction:

Spencer Strider: +650 (Bet $100 to win $650)

Zach Wheeler: +900 (Bet $100 to win $900)

Max Fried: +1400 (Bet $100 to win $1,400)

Logan Webb: +1500 (Bet $100 to win $1,500)

Zac Gallen: +1600 (Bet $100 to win $1,600)

Yoshinobu Yamamoto: +1700 (Bet $100 to win $1,700)

Blake Snell: +1800 (Bet $100 to win $1,800)

Jordan Steele and Tyler Glasnow: +2000 (Bet $100 to win $2,000)

Dylan Cease: +2500 (Bet $100 to win $2,500)

The NL Cy Young race is easily the most interesting race of the group. Aces such as Glasnow and Cease have migrated from the American League, and Yamamoto joined the Dodgers after playing professionally in Japan have made this a much harder decision with a lot of the best pitchers in baseball in the National League.

With that being said, I'm gonna take the chalk here with the odds-on-favorite in Strider.

While the 25-year-old led MLB in wins (20) and strikeouts (281) last season, he only finished fourth in Cy Young voting and didn't receive any first-place votes.

A big reason for that was his ERA jumping from 2.67 in 2022 to 3.86 in 2023 and surrendering nearly double the number of hits, albeit in 55 more innings pitched.

Just as his wins and strikeouts likely aren't sustainable to repeat this year, the same thing could be said about last year's ERA.

Looking back at his 2023 campaign, Strider's ERA seems as if it's a little inflated since he conceded three or more runs in five of his last six starts to finish the regular season.

After a dominant spring training (3-1, 0.79 ERA and 35:8 strikeout-to-walk ratio) and developing a new pitch, I'm all-in on Strider winning his first Cy Young Award this season.

With most sportsbooks ranging from +380 to +450 for Strider to win the Cy Young, Caesars Sportsbook far and away has the best available odds currently at +650.

2024 National League Rookie of the Year odds and prediction:

Yoshinobu Yamamoto: +250 (Bet $100 to win $250)

Jackson Chourio : +800 (Bet $100 to win $800)

Jung Hoo Lee: +900 (Bet $100 to win $900)

Noelvi Marte: +1100 (Bet $100 to win $1,100)

Shota Imanaga & Kyle Harrison: +1800 (Bet $100 to win $1,800)

Michael Busch: +3000 (Bet $100 to win $3,000)

Paul Skenes, DL Hall and Jordan Lawlar: +4000 (Bet $100 to win $4,000)

The biggest separation between the favorite and the field lies here with Yamamoto the far and away favorite at just under 3/1 odds.

While it's worth a wager given the 25-year-old's ability and dominance in Japan, I'm going with Chourio.

The No. 2 prospect in baseball has already made the Brewers' Opening Day roster and will likely take over every day duties in right field.

Chourio played his first full spring training with Milwaukee where he hit .323 with three doubles and a triple in 62 at-bats.

The 20-year-old has played two full seasons in the minors but really improved in multiple categories in 2023.

After only having 16 stolen bases in 99 games in 2022, Chourio nearly tripled that number last season as he notched 44 swiped bags across 128 contests in Double and Triple-A.

At the plate, the Brewers' top prospect cut down on his strikeouts from 118 to 104 despite playing in 29 more games.

Chourio also showed his improved plate discipline by drawing 11 more walks (42 in 2023 compared to 32 in 2022) a year ago.

It's hard not to draw the comparisons to the Diamondbacks' Corbin Carroll. Last year's NL Rookie of the Year was arguably Arizona's best player, finishing fifth in MVP voting after hitting .285 with 25 home runs, 30 doubles and 10 triples and 54 stolen bases, being one of the key components for the organization getting back to the World Series for the first time in 22 years.

While he might not have that same type of massive impact as Carroll did in his first season, I'm betting that Chourio will become the second Brewers player in the last four years (Devin Williams in 2020) to take home Rookie of the Year honors.

Bet on Chourio to win NL Rookie of the Year right now at +800 on BetMGM as all other sportsbooks have the outfielder hovering around 6/1 odds to win.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: MLB predictions 2024: NL MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year odds