Despite finishing with a better record than their Wild Card Series opponent, the White Sox have longer odds than the Astros to win both the AL pennant and the World Series.
It should come as a surprise to nobody that the Chicago White Sox are not one of the favorites to win the 2026 World Series.
The fact that we can even have this conversation and look at a postseason bracket that includes the White Sox speaks volumes.
The White Sox were given virtually no chance before the season began. FanGraphs listed their odds of winning the World Series at 0.0 percent and gave Chicago a 0.0 percent chance of earning a first-round bye, something they came just one game short of doing.
Sportsbooks had the White Sox at +50000, or 500-to-1 odds, to win the World Series at the start of the year. They were the underdog of all underdogs, lumped in with teams like the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Angels.
And now, here we are, getting ready for the Wild Card Series with the White Sox just 13 wins away from becoming World Series champions. Once again, the odds are stacked against them.
Nobody should expect an 84-78 wild card team to be an odds-on favorite to win it all. But I can't help but feel like the Vegas odds on a White Sox World Series win are still pretty disrespectful.
FanDuel Sportsbook has the White Sox at +3500 to win the World Series. Those are the longest odds of any team in the postseason by a wide margin. The Houston Astros, Chicago's first-round opponent in the Wild Card Series, are at +2200, while the Los Angeles Dodgers are the current favorites at +230.
Again, it makes sense for teams playing in this week's Wild Card Series to have longer odds than teams with a first-round bye. They have more games to win. But the Astros finished 81-81, making them the first team in MLB history to reach the playoffs without a winning record in a 162-game season.
Shouldn't they have longer odds than the White Sox? Shouldn't it at least be close? And shouldn't Chicago's odds improve with the Astros as their wild card opponent?
Even within the American League, the White Sox are +1200 to win the pennant, while the Astros have the next longest odds at +700. Baseball's underdogs and the story of the 2026 season are once again being underestimated.
There's no debating that it would be quite an upset for the White Sox to win it all. But the powers that be are still betting against them. Perhaps that's the additional fuel this team needs to play its best when it matters most and go on a run.
The Wild Card Series between the White Sox and Astros begins Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. Central Time.
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