{"id":348530,"date":"2025-05-23T12:41:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T16:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=348530"},"modified":"2025-05-23T12:42:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T16:42:54","slug":"blue-jays-picks-vs-rays-may-23-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/blue-jays-picks-vs-rays-may-23-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays vs. Rays prop picks May 23: Look for Vladimir Guerrero, Addison Barger to provide offence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Toronto Blue Jays start a weekend series on the road against the division rival Tampa Bay Rays on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pregame narrative:<\/strong> Toronto put together a gutsy effort to win on Thursday against the San Diego Padres. The extra-innings victory sealed a three-game sweep and put the club over the .500 mark for the first time in over a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out my Blue Jays vs. Rays <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.ca\/page?key=ej0xMzUyNDU3MiZsPTEzNTc4NzU5JnA9MjM3Njk%3D\">prop picks<\/a> on May 23, featuring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/mlb\/addison_barger\/batting-stats\">Addison Barger<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/mlb\/vladimir_guerrero_jr\/batting-stats\">Vladimir Guerrero Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Blue Jays picks vs. Rays<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.ca\/page?key=ej0xMzUyNDU3MiZsPTEzNTc4NzU5JnA9MjM3Njk%3D\">Best Bet<\/a>: Barger over 1.5 total bases (+155)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Blue Jays may have found a gem in Barger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his second MLB season, the third baseman is batting .267 with two home runs and 10 RBI. While that isn&#8217;t <em>too<\/em> impressive, his advanced metrics are the real eyecatcher:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>.291 xBA<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>95.2 average exit velocity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>58.2 hard-hit %<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Baseball Savant, he ranks in the 85th percentile or better for all of those stats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drew Rasmussen (2.94 ERA) takes the mound for the Rays. He&#8217;s a good pitcher, but his last five starts have signalled reason to worry moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has a 4.62 ERA and 5.56 FIP across those outings. The righty gives up an average exit velocity of 90.4 (27th percentile) while having below-average whiff and K rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rasmussen should allow a lot of contact to this red-hot Jays lineup, and Barger should continue to provide power hitting in the middle of the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key stat:<\/strong> Barger has a .356 BA and is slugging .622 in 12 games since May 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"cacheembed:114095\">Embed: #114095<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"insights\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/sports-hub\/baseball\/mlb?utm_source=insights&amp;utm_medium=text_link&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=sportsbook_mlb\">Full MLB betting markets<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"insights\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/article\/mlb-injury-report?utm_source=insights&amp;utm_medium=text_link&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=injury_reports\">MLB injury report<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"insights\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/mlb\/top-players\/hitting\/OPS-on-base_plus_slugging?utm_source=insights&amp;utm_medium=text_link&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=stats_pages\">MLB stats &amp; standings<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick pick<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.ca\/page?key=ej0xMzUyNDU3MiZsPTEzNTc4NzU5JnA9MjM3Njk%3D\">Guerrero over 0.5 runs (+102)<\/a>:<\/strong> This pick feels like a steal at <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.ca\/page?key=ej0xMzUyNDU3MiZsPTEzNTc4NzU5JnA9MjM3Njk%3D\">plus money<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To start, Guerrero has pretty good numbers in his career vs. Rasmussen. He is 6-for-21 (.286) with two doubles and a home run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, the slugging first baseman is elite at getting into scoring position. Over his last 25 games, take a look at his stats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>21 runs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>.387 OBP<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>43 total bases<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1+ run in 19 of 25 games<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is usually the other Blue Jays&#8217; ability to drive Vladdy in, but that hasn&#8217;t been an issue lately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over that same 25-game sample, Toronto is averaging 4.64 runs per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That would rank 10th in MLB over the entire season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Blue Jays vs. Rays picks made at 11:13 a.m. ET on 05\/23\/2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"thestar\">Looking to get started? <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.ca\/page?key=ej0xMzUyNzQxMyZsPTEzNTI3NDExJnA9MjMyNDM%3D\">Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Blue Jays start a weekend series on the road against the division rival Tampa Bay Rays on Friday. The pregame narrative: Toronto put together a gutsy effort to win on Thursday against the San Diego Padres. The extra-innings victory sealed a three-game sweep and put the club over the .500 mark for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":348557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-348530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-mlb-betting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blue Jays picks vs. Rays: May 23 MLB betting | NorthStar Bets<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our Blue Jays picks vs. Rays for May 23, 2025. 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