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About a quarter of the way through the MLB season, the theme so far has been parity.
The teams expected to be among the worst — Rockies, Nationals, Cardinals — are all feisty and quite competitive.
The American League has just four teams heading into Tuesday night with a record over .500, and the current division leaders are the Rays, Guardians and Athletics.
These are all surprises to some extent.
If the playoffs started today, the White Sox would be a wild-card team, despite their losing record. Even the infamous Dodgers have yet to exert their dominance as they currently look up in the National League West standings to the first place Padres.
While the AL currently has just four teams with winning records, the National League Central has five. And within that league, I think, is an effort that offers some value.
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Pirates Manager Don Kelly is currently +600 (bet $10 to win $70 total) to win National League Manager of the Year.
These awards, especially when it comes to coaches or managers, are often about what the best story is, with expectations heavily factored in.
The Pirates were a wild-card team from 2013-2015 and have not been to the postseason since. Remarkably, they haven’t won a postseason series since winning the World Series in 1979.
The Pirates currently sit at 22-19 and look like a serious playoff contender, with NL Cy Young favorite Paul Skenes at the top of the rotation.
Braves manager Walt Weiss and Cubs manager Craig Counsell currently have shorter odds than Kelly, but both of those managers have more talented teams with significantly higher expectations than the Pirates.
The Cubs were division favorites entering the year, and the Braves had a down year in 2025. Before that, Atlanta had been a perennial playoff team and World Series contender for close to a decade. The Pirates are currently +140 odds to make the playoffs, and if they were to pull it off, Kelly would be the frontrunner to win this award this fall, in my opinion.
Ultimately, the Pirates are in the conversation for having the least success of almost any major sports franchise over the past few decades. A return to the postseason would not go unnoticed by voters.
PICK: Don Kelly (+600) to win NL Manager of the Year
