Padres, M's see most betting action at deadline

After making some of the biggest splashes of the MLB trade deadline, the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners emerged as the biggest odds movers and most popular selections for bettors in the futures markets.

The Padres entered Thursday's deadline day with +3500 odds to win the World Series and promptly moved to +2500 at ESPN BET after acquiring pitchers Mason Miller and JP Sears from the Athletics; they moved further to +1600 after getting first baseman Ryan O'Hearn and outfielder Ramon Laureano from the Baltimore Orioles. San Diego also moved from +1800 to +1200 to win the National League pennant.

The transactions surely had some influence on the line movement, but so too did the action coming on them from the betting public. DraftKings reports that, since the deadline, San Diego has taken easily the most money to win this season's World Series at 23%; the next closest is the New York Mets at 14%. ESPN BET said the Padres have garnered 12.5% of the handle since Wednesday, third most in the league.

Bettors will be hoping that the big-time prospect talent San Diego surrendered will be worth it this season -- and that it will work out better than previous attempts. At this year's deadline, the Padres traded away five of their top seven prospects, and since 2014, they have traded away eventual stars Trea Turner, Max Fried and James Wood, among others, during the season.

Meanwhile, the Mariners were +2500 at ESPN BET to win the World Series before they acquired third baseman Eugenio Suarez, arguably the biggest prize of the deadline, late Wednesday night. That transaction moved them to +2000, then they moved to +1400 after acquiring first baseman Josh Naylor from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a separate transaction. They also improved slightly to win the American League pennant, going from +800 to +700.

Since Wednesday, Seattle is ESPN BET's most-bet team with 18.6% of the tickets and 30.5% of the handle for the World Series market. Even excluding the momentum from the Suarez trade, DraftKings says the Mariners have attracted a leading 17% of bets since the deadline.

Despite staying relatively quiet at the deadline, the Los Angeles Dodgers are still clearly the team to beat by the odds, showing +240 to win the World Series at ESPN BET; next closest are the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies tied at +850. The Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, New York Yankees and Mets, who displayed varying degrees of activity at the deadline, round out the top odds at +1000.

But for all the teams that increased their chances with trade deadline activity, there were a few whose lines fell off a cliff: The San Francisco Giants went from +4000 to 100-1 for the World Series, while the Minnesota Twins, who had a veritable fire sale, went from 100-1 to 250-1.