Oneil Cruz and Bobby Witt Jr. highlight Wednesday’s top MLB prop picks.
The pregame narrative: I like both to clear their total bases prop in juicy matchups, and I also have a play on Lawrence Butler to close out the 15-game slate.
Check out the best MLB prop bets for April 23.
MLB prop bets
Best bet: Cruz over 1.5 total bases (+100)
The 26-year-old has stark splits. If he’s facing a southpaw, I’m likely to look the other way.
Against a right-hander, though, the Pittsburgh Pirates centrefielder has my attention.
- 2025: .998 OPS vs. RHP; .441 vs. LHP
- Career: .829 OPS vs. RHP; .614 vs. LHP
Los Angeles Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz has had no swing-and-miss ability at the MLB level.
He has struck out 9.9% of the batters he’s faced over 15 starts since making his debut last year.
The league-average rate for starters was 22% in 2024 and is again this season. Cruz has K issues, so Kochanowicz’s lack of strikeouts helps offset contact concerns.
After Kochanowicz, the Pirates’ leadoff man will face an Angels bullpen that’s not formidable.
Los Angeles relievers rank last in the AL with a 5.45 ERA and sport the third-highest HR/9 rate in MLB.
Key stat: Cruz has topped this line in five of his last eight games, raising his slugging from .391 to .486.
Best MLB picks
Butler over 0.5 runs (-138): Sutter Health Park, the Athletics’ temporary home, has been the second-most hitter-friendly stadium in MLB (according to Baseball Savant’s Park factors) so far.
Butler is hitting for average, drawing walks at a high clip and striking out at a well-below average rate.
He’s the leadoff man for the Athletics and has some thump behind him, including Brent Rooker and Tyler Soderstrom, who leads MLB with nine homers.
Here are Butler’s numbers compared to MLB’s league-average rates:
- BB%: 13.1 (9.2)
- K%: 16.2 (21.8)
- AVG: .279 (.240)
Butler is a threat to run, too, and get into scoring position if he gets on base, swiping 18 bags in 2024 and five through 23 games this season.
The Texas Rangers are deploying Kumar Rocker, who has been disappointing, particularly his inability to miss bats (14 Ks through four starts, eight of which came in his last outing).
Rocker is a big prospect who excelled in his limited time in the minors, but the 25-year-old is far from a high-end big league arm at this stage.
Witt over 1.5 total bases (-125): This isn’t a price I venture into often on a total bases prop, but I love the matchup for Witt.
The Kansas City Royals line up with German Marquez and the Colorado Rockies, who are an MLB-worst 4-18 and allowing the second-most runs per game (5.59).
Colorado’s bullpen ranks 30th in MLB with a 5.16 FIP.
Marquez, who barely pitched the last two years, had a good first start but has proceeded to do this:
- April 5 vs. ATH: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 6 BB, 3 K
- April 11 vs. SD: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 3 K
- April 16 vs. LAD: 0.2 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 1 BB, 1 K
Witt has cleared this line in more than half of his games — only seven players have done so more frequently — and he recorded two-plus bases at the second-best clip last season (per Team Rankings).
The Royals star has logged at least one hit in 22 of his 24 games this season.
MLB prop picks made at 3:51 p.m. ET on 04/23/2025.
Chris joined NorthStar Gaming from Covers.com where he was a publishing editor and wrote betting content. Before that, he was the sports editor at VICE Canada, worked for theScore and covered the Blue Jays for MLB.com. In addition to filling out the lineup card each day for the editorial team, Chris writes frequently himself, primarily on the NBA and MLB.