It’s a getaway day in the big leagues, which means we get MLB player props to bet on all day long, and I’m here to bring you my three favorite plays.
They include two guys on the opposite ends of the hitting spectrum. Bobby Witt Jr. is locked in at the dish while Anthony Volpe is in the middle of a slump.
Below are my MLB picks for those guys and more for Thursday, April 17.
Best MLB player props today
Witt o0.5 RBI (+180 at bet365)
Volpe u0.5 hits (+130 at bet365)
Canning u17.5 outs (-130 at DraftKings)
MLB props for April 17
Bobby Witt Jr. Over 0.5 RBI (+180 at bet365)
Bobby Witt Jr. is pretty insane. He started the season a little slowly (by his lofty standards), but now the Kansas City Royals shortstop has found his timing at the plate, and it looks like there is no slowing him down.
Well, at the very least, Detroit Tigers starter Reese Olson probably won’t be the one to do that.
Witt enters tonight’s series opener against the rival Tigers on a nine-game hitting streak, where he owns a .400 batting average to go along with a 1.106 OPS. And the last thing Olson wants to see is a red-hot Witt.
For starters, Olson looks a little rusty. The right-hander has surrendered 10 earned runs on 17 hits and seven walks in 15 innings pitched over his first three starts. That has resulted in him ranking in the 33rd percentile in expected batting average and the 18th in expected batting average.
Oh, and Witt has absolutely owned this matchup. The All-Star shortstop is 6-for-11 in 13 career plate appearances vs. Olson with a double, a triple, and two dingers. That works out to a .437 xBA and a .926 xSLG.
But Witt isn’t the only Royal who has enjoyed this matchup. Current KC batters have a combined .300 xBA and a .530 xSLG, which should mean baserunners for Witt to drive in.
Anthony Volpe Under 0.5 hits (+130 at bet365)
The New York Yankees started the season tearing the cover off the ball. However, the bats have cooled off a bit, including that of shortstop Anthony Volpe.
Like many of his teammates, Volpe started the season on fire, but he’s developed a hole in his swing of late. Volpe has just three hits and 11 strikeouts over his last nine games, hitting .111 with a .413 OPS over that span.
His overall expected batting average for the season is now just .207, which ranks in the 20th percentile among MLB batters.
And now he gets a tough matchup when the Yankees visit the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays hand the ball to Taj Bradley for the opener. The right-hander has carried over a strong finish in 2024 into the start of this season, pitching to a 3.26 expected ERA and has struck out seven batters in each of his first three starts.
Volpe won’t be keen to see Bradley staring down at him from the mound. That’s because he is 0-for-5 with two strikeouts in his career against the Rays’ starter. That’s good for a .107 xBA and a .150 xSLG.
Volpe has put up a donut in the hit column six times over the last nine games. With a price tag of +130, there’s value in his to go 0-fer at the dish yet again.
Griffin Canning Under 17.5 outs recorded (-130 at DraftKings)
I wasn’t entirely sure what the New York Mets were doing when they signed Griffin Canning to be a part of their rotation this offseason. And I still don’t.
Canning never lived up to expectations as one of the Los Angeles Angels' top pitching prospects, scuffling to a 4.78 ERA through five uninspiring seasons with the Halos.
Last season, his ERA was 5.19 with a career-low 6.8 strikeouts per nine innings. So, I wasn’t buying into this solid start to 2025 for him, where he allowed just three earned runs on eight hits in 9 2/3 innings pitched over his first two starts.
He then got tagged by the Athletics for four runs on seven hits his last time out, and his advanced stats paint a much clearer picture of who Canning is.
The right-hander ranks in the 22nd percentile in expected ERA, and the 21st percentile in expected batting average wehile also ranking in the sixth percentile in average exit velocity and the second percentile in hard-hit rate. Basically, he gets hit hard and often.
He also hasn’t pitched deep into games, averaging just five innings and 87.3 pitches per start with his longest outing being 5 2/3 innings.
Tonight, he takes the ball against the St. Louis Cardinals, who, despite being a .500 ball club, have been hitting very well. St. Louis leads the majors in batting average, while ranking third in OPS and fourth in wRC+.
Yet, Canning still has an outs-recorded prop sitting at 17.5 for this one. Under looks like an easy play here.
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