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The Tampa Bay Rays hope to clinch the series with the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday as they host their second game back at the newly-reopened Tropicana Field.

Monday saw the Rays pick up an emotional 6-4 win, and the MLB odds indicate they’re expected to replicate that with Drew Rasmussen on the bump.

My Cubs vs. Rays predictions have MLB picks for the side and total for Tuesday, April 7.

Who will win Cubs vs Rays today: Rays moneyline (-128)

Drew Rasmussen’s increased cutter usage is a key reason for his strong start. He’s picked up a whiff rate of 29.4% with the pitch, utilizing it 7% more than last season.

Tuesday he faces a Chicago Cubs lineup whose .340 xwOBAcon and .213 xBA are fourth-worst in the bigs.

Yandy Diaz is setting the table for the Tampa Bay Rays with a .395 xwOBA and a .489 OBP. As a team, they rank fifth in xBA and wOBA, and sixth in slugging.

They’ll score runs against Javier Assad, making his first start after posting a 4.86 xERA and 4.69 xFIP last season.

COVERS INTEL:Assad got crushed by LHH in 2025, allowing a .293/.339/.552 split and nine earned runs vs. 62 batters faced.

Cubs vs Rays Over/Under pick: Over 7.5 (-115)

Tampa Bay has consistently been going over the total this season, even when the opponent hasn’t been contributing.

Monday’s 6-4 win marked the eighth Over in 10 games to start the season and I expect that trend to continue. Assad will likely get punished by the top of the order, especially if Diaz gets on-base in front of Jonathan Aranda.

The Cubs bullpen has a 4.63 xFIP and 5.41 xERA. Tampa Bay has seen its pen far even worse, with a 4.94 xFIP and 6.08 xERA. Both rank in the bottom third, and late runs will push the total north of the number.

Cubs vs Rays odds

• Moneyline: Chicago +117 | Tampa Bay -122
• Run line: Chicago +1.5 (-186) | Tampa Bay -1.5 (+170)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (-108) | Under 7.5 (+104)

Cubs vs Rays trend

The Chicago Cubs have hit the Team Total Under in 20 of their last 26 away games (+13.15 Units / 42% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Cubs vs. Rays.

How to watch Cubs vs Rays and game info

Cubs vs Rays latest injuries

Cubs vs Rays weather

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Mets manager Carlos Mendoza spoke with reporters on Tuesday at Citi Field.

Here are the main topics he discussed...

The plan for Juan Soto

Soto was placed on the IL on Monday, retroactive to Saturday, due to the minor calf strain he suffered this past Friday against the Giants in San Francisco.

Mendoza explained that the decision was basically made on Sunday, and that Soto was fine with it.

While Soto could've conceivably played in the near-term and avoided an IL stint, Mendoza said the team "just wanted to play it safe."

"I've been saying that these are tricky, the calf area," Mendoza explained. "There's no reason for us to continue to go day by day and put him through a series of exercises and make a decision on whether he's gonna be available or not. 

"We just decided, you know what, take your time before we start putting you through a series of things that he has to check all the boxes, right? Give him time, and we'll get him back when we get him back." 

Tuesday is the fourth day since Soto's injury occurred, and he is eligible to return from the IL in one week -- on Tuesday, April 14. 

When the Mets announced the IL move, they noted that a typical return to play for the type of injury Soto has is two-to-three weeks.

"For now, it's just treatment," Mendoza said about Soto's rehab. "I'm pretty sure he's gonna be doing some exercises indoors -- not much baseball activity until the soreness or the tightness goes away. That's the plan for the coming days."

Ronny Mauricio's role

Mauricio was called up to replace Soto on the 26-man roster, and Mendoza laid out why, noting that they wanted another infielder/versatile player up given the minor ailments to Jorge Polanco (Achilles) and Brett Baty (thumb).

Mendoza spoke to Mauricio about his role, explaining to the 25-year-old that regular playing time might be sparse while he's up.

"Even though his name is not gonna be in the starting lineup, he's got a pretty important role," Mendoza said. "Coming off the bench, lefty bat, the versatility, defensively, pinch-running if we need to. But also understanding that the playing time part is gonna be limited. But we're not talking about having a case here like last year, where he kind of sat on the bench for a long time."

Mauricio slashed .226/.293/.369 with six homers and six doubles in 184 plate appearances over 61 big league games in 2025.

He has tantalizing potential, but has yet to put it all together at the major league level. 

Mauricio also missed the entire 2024 season and the start of 2025 after needing ACL surgery for an injury he sustained while playing winter ball -- something that slowed his development. 

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Dinger Tuesday means backing the hottest bats, even as cooler weather sweeps across the league. Attention turns to indoor ballparks and select West Coast matchups where pricing and opportunity still offer solid value in the home run market and MLB player props.

Junior Caminero made his presence felt at the Trop with a four-bagger yesterday, and I’m counting on him to repeat the performance today.

On top of that, I’m doubling down on Atlanta Braves power with Drake Baldwin and Ozzie Albies, rounding out a four-player home run round-robin in my top home run props and MLB picks for Tuesday, April 7.

Best MLB home run props today

Player to hit a HR	Odds
Junior Caminero	+400
Drake Baldwin	+560
Ozzie Albies	+520
💲Today's HR parlay	+17633

Junior Caminero (+400)

With the temps dropping to the 40s, finding dingers indoors is the key to a profitable home run card on Tuesday. The Trop is back, and Junior Caminero went deep there yesterday afternoon, which was his second straight game with a four-bagger. He has hits in four straight, and nobody in baseball has a harder hit ball than him, with his league-leading exit velocity of 116.9 mph. 

He faces Javier Assad, who was recalled from Triple-A to fill in for Matthew Boyd and Cade Horton. In his last minor league outing, Assad allowed two home runs on 11 hits and profiles as a contact-heavy arm.

This shapes up as one of the better hitting matchups on the slate, making Caminero a strong value play at this price in a controlled environment.

• Time: 6:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Rays.TV, Marquee Sports Network

Drake Baldwin (+560)

Drake Baldwin has already failed me this year, but, of course, he got hot after I bet on him with back-to-back games going deep.

He is currently tied for the league lead with five homers. A price north of +500 in Anaheim, with decent hitting conditions, is putting him back in my trust tree. He is a Top-10 hitter in baseball right now who isn't striking out. 

There are three other Atlanta Braves who have taken Yusei Kikuchi deep over their careers in Ronald Acuna (+360), Matt Olson (+390), and Ozzie Albies (+520), so there is plenty of info for Baldwin, who handles lefties just as well as righties.

This might be a great spot for a two-man Atlanta round-robin homer card with the two shortest numbers making better than 20/1 odds. That's six combinations at doubles. At 0.15 units per bet, that would be a decent winner at less than a unit risk. 

• Time: 9:38 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: FanDuel Sports Network West, BravesVision

Ozzie Albies (+520)

Let’s keep attacking Kikuchi in a solid hitting environment with Albies at +520.

He’s already part of a four-player round robin I have, but his solo HR prop at +480 or better still carries +EV based on projections. Albies is expected to hit in the three-hole against a lefty, a split where he’s historically been stronger than vs. right-handers.

Kikuchi’s profile is vulnerable to hard-hit fly balls, and Albies has already had success in the matchup, going 3-for-6 with a home run.

There’s also upside beyond the starter, as the Angels' bullpen has outperformed its underlying numbers, carrying a 4.51 xFIP that ranks near the bottom of the league despite a strong ERA. This sets up as a spot where the Braves could generate multiple home runs.

• Time: 9:38 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: FanDuel Sports Network West, BravesVision

Today’s HR parlay

Junior Caminero	Bet Now +17633
Drake Baldwin
Ozzie Albies

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Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Orioles fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

Last year’s Orioles team never had a .500 or better record after being 3-3 through six games. For a little while in April, they might win a game to at least get within one below, or a couple in a row to get within two below, but they could never get back to an even record and before long they were not even close to it.

The Orioles have played poorly enough over the first couple of weeks of the season to leave people wondering if they’re going to run back that disappointment, only with some different faces involved. Hopefully, they will not do this. Yet we all hoped they would not do it last year either and what did that get us? Nothing except for a July dismantling.

In this week’s survey, I am setting the bar low. It is depressing how low I have set the bar. The question is: Will the Orioles get back to .500 before April is over?

If you don’t see the survey, you may need to open this article in Incognito Mode.

It’s possible that this question will be answered before the results of this survey are even posted. If the Orioles can sweep the White Sox, they’ll be .500 on Friday when I typically get the survey results. They should have a decent chance to do it, since Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish are starting the next two games and the White Sox offense is pretty bad. Of course, nothing is guaranteed. The Orioles offense is also pretty bad and the defense and bullpen are both highly questionable.

What do you think? Vote above and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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The New York Yankees will look to continue to build off their 7-2 start when they host the Athletics for an early week series starting tonight.

We like their chances in the opening with one of the most promising young arms in the majors on the mound. 

My A's vs. Yankees predictions and MLB picks break down the matchup and why we're backing a low-scoring New York win on Tuesday, April 7.

Who will win A's vs Yankees today: Yankees moneyline (-230)

There’s been a bit of a rush to fade Cam Schlittler in the market early this season after his postseason accomplishments last year.

In some ways I understand it, but he’s simply responded by being untouchable, allowing zero runs over two starts and, perhaps more importantly, posting an expected ERA of just 1.09 (top 2% of the league). I’m backing him here. 

This is the ideal opponent for his elite chase rate, strikeout build. The Athletics own the highest whiff rate in baseball at 32% and the highest swing rate at 51%. 

They pair this with the lowest chase contact rate in the league. Schlittler should curve through this lineup, making over strikeouts, outs, and under hits all of interest too. 

COVERS INTEL:The A’s 31.8% whiff rate is the highest in baseball through the first week-plus of the season. 

A's vs Yankees Over/Under pick: Under 8.5 (-118)

This play is mostly a double down of Schlittler having a big-time performance. I made this number 8.1 so I see a decent amount of value getting around the half run. 

We’ve talked about Schlittler enough but I’m a fan of A’s hurler Aaron Civale, too. His groundball rate won’t stay at over 55% all season but for the moment, I’ll respect it and say that’s the profile you want the most when facing New York.

Pairing that with just a 6% barrel rate tells you he limits damage in the air even if he cannot miss bats. The New York Yankees will score but Civale's contact profile keeps balls on the ground.

A's vs Yankees odds

• Moneyline: Athletics +194 | New York Yankees -203
• Run line: Athletics +1.5 (-106) | New York Yankees -1.5 (+100)
• Over/Under: Over 8.5 | Under 8.5

A's vs Yankees trend

The New York Yankees have hit the 1st Five Innings (F5) Moneyline in 31 of their last 45 games (+17.25 Units / 23% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for A's vs. Yankees.

How to watch A's vs Yankees and game info

A's vs Yankees latest injuries

A's vs Yankees weather

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While it was the pitching staff that carried the team through the first week of games, the offense began to break out scoring 23 runs in their three-game set against the Marlins. The unit is still far from firing on all cylinders, Aaron Judge yet to truly ignite his season. Instead, they’ve had to rely on the contributions of a different pair of sluggers, Giancarlo Stanton picking up this season where he left off last year while Ben Rice looks poised to break out as the league’s next offensive juggernaut.

We join Rice leading off the bottom of the seventh, the cleanup hitter having already endured an 0-for-3 night with three strikeouts. However, the Yankees are winning, and Rice remains one swing away from transforming a stinker of a night into a productive outing.

The Marlins have brought in a fresh reliever for the seventh, the hard-throwing Michael Petersen hoping for a clean inning. He throws one of the best four-seamers in the game when you combine its velocity and movement, so it’s no surprise to see him start Rice with the ol’ No. 1.

Petersen commands this 97 mph four-seamer almost perfectly to the corner down and away and earns the called strike. Statcast reveals that this pitch is out of the zone, but the Yankees have already exhausted both their ABS challenges, and in truth it’s a good take from Rice given how little you can expect to do with a pitch located that well.

Now that Petersen has shown Rice the high velo cheese, he attempts to get him chasing out in front of a changeup below the zone.

You just aren’t going to get Rice to chase a pitch like this. The changeup is a ball out of Petersen’s hand and never looks like breaking toward the zone, making for an automatic take from one of the most disciplined hitters in the league over the last 12 months.

Perhaps Petersen saw that Rice didn’t even flinch at the last pitch, because he ditches the changeup for the four-seamer for the rest of the AB.

This is a helluva four-seamer at 98 mph with an eye-popping 22 inches of induced vertical break (18 inches is considered elite). Petersen throws one of the ten best four-seamers in the league when measuring vertical movement, this barely dropping from its plane during its path to home plate. It’s such a difficult pitch to track for the hitter — with practically any other four-seamer you expect it to drop into the zone but Petersen’s almost rises as it approaches home. Rice can absolutely be forgiven for chasing and whiffing under this almost gravity-defying pitch.

Just like that, Rice finds himself in a 1-2 hole and on the precipice of donning the dreaded golden sombrero. If Petersen can repeat the pitch he just threw, Rice is almost surely toast.

Wait a second. Rice isn’t supposed to be able to pull this pitch into the second deck just foul after getting beaten badly by an identical four-seamer one pitch prior. This is some kind of adjustment from Rice to be able to immediately doctor his swing plane to match the pitch that just beat him.

After watching Rice clobber that elevated four-seamer into the second deck, you might expect Petersen to go with something off-speed to take advantage of Rice’s sped up bat. Instead he tries to sneak another four-seamer by Rice in the same spot.

Bad idea. In addition to this pitch actually being in the zone, Rice has fully adjusted his swing to do damage, and boy does he, lasering a 111 mph frozen rope into the seats in right for his second home run of the season. That’s two adjustments in the course of three pitches — the mark of a hitter who is not only locked in but also fully understands every facet of his own swing.

Here’s the full AB:

Rice alongside Cam Schlittler has been one of the true developmental wins for the Yankees since Aaron Judge ascended to superstardom. His emergence as a middle-of-the-order bat comes at a crucial time for the Bombers as they suffer through fielding the worst six-through-nine hitters in all of MLB

You always knew Ryan McMahon and José Caballero were apt to struggle offensively, but the lack of production from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Austin Wells has seriously shortened the lineup in the early going. The onus is therefore on the first five hitters to shoulder the majority of the offensive burden. If Rice can continue his own ascent toward becoming one of the most dangerous first basemen in the league, the Yankees should still continue to score runs irrespective of the impotence of the bottom of their order.

We all know about Rice’s batted ball supremacy — over a quarter of his batted balls have been barreled while almost four out of every five is hard-hit. We also know how he has made himself into a strike zone savant, placing in the 90th percentile or better in walk and chase rates. However, this encounter showcases another pair of skills he has developed in his time in the majors. His ability to make adjustments pitch-to-pitch and AB-to-AB is already elite. But perhaps even more impressive, his mentality to immediately turn the page after experiencing disappointment — as evidenced by his home run and two-run double after striking out in his first three at-bats of this game — is what I believe will take Rice into the stratosphere of MLB hitters.

Here’s the Royals’ lineup:

Here’s the Guardians’ lineup:

Let’s go, Guardians!

Spring training is a time for hope. It can come in two forms – fans hope their team will put it all together to make a run at a happier ending to their season than the one before while teams hope their players make it through the gamut unscathed. Injuries are a concern and everyone just wants to make it out alive.

Spring training is also a time for contract extensions. Teams were likely working behind the scenes during the winter to talk to player agents in the hopes that they can get a certain player to extend their stay on the roster. The focus for many of those talks are on players that are either really close to free agency or really far away. These past few weeks around the game has seen teams trying to make sure their young talent that is further away from reaching free agency would agree to a deal that would make them instantly wealthy for an extended period of time while also securing their future at cheap reasonable rates while assuming a decent amount of risk that the deal will bust out. There has been a deal in Baltimore where the Orioles made sure Shane Baz sticks around while the Brewers and Mariners made sure their shortstop phenoms would spend their best years in their cities before even making a major league debut. Konnor Griffin jumped on the extension train hours before his major league debut, so it seems as though there is a pattern. The suspicion of teams getting ahead of things prior changes to the CBA, but for the most part, it’s just good business on the part of the team.

It makes one wonder if the Phillies would consider doing the same.

Right now, there are three contenders for getting this kind of extension: Justin Crawford, Andrew Painter and Aidan Miller. All three would fall into that category of “signing him now to avoid future expense”, but each would be their own special case. Were the team to sign Miller, it would look as though they were just joining in the young shortstop extension fun. With Crawford and Painter, it would be similar in that they were young players the team wished to make sure didn’t get too expensive, but at different positions, it would have a different shade of extension.

Aidan Miller

It seems that the new cool thing to do is signing your young shortstop that has yet to debut. As mentioned before, Pratt, Emerson and Griffin now have their grandchildren’s children set up for life with generational wealth while also preserving the ability to make even more money later on due to their current youth and end date of the contract. Looking down prospect lists and noticing that others might still do the same (Kevin McGonigle, J.J. Wetherholt, Jesus Made to name a few), one might wonder about if the Phillies were interested in doing the same. Where that might end up would depend on a few things.

The first thing to worry about is Miller’s health. They can continue to talk with optimism all they want with regards to his back injury, but those are the ones that scare teams. A lot. Miller would have to prove that he is capable of repeating the kind of season he had in 2025 without the fear that his back was going to give out before the team committed large swaths of money to his future.

The second thing is exactly that: do it again. He had a marvelous season in 2025 that catapulted him to the top of the team’s prospect rankings, yet he also was struggling to begin the season. Maybe seeing him repeat what he did last year, to a certain extent, would help soothe some of the fears that he just rode a hot streak, though scouting reports and under the hood numbers suggest he is more than capable of repeating his 2025 year.

Justin Crawford

Of the three players here, Crawford seems least likely to get an extension offer as it really just doesn’t feel like it would be necessary based on his offensive profile.

Why?

Baseball has been trending to power tools being more highly valued over hit tools for quite a while. The ideal is to find a player that can have both and can be developed and refined at the big league level, but if druthers were to be had, the power would be what teams wanted. We’ve already seen flashes of having both skills from McGonigle, who looks to have a preternatural feel for doing both and doing both quite well. With Crawford, his success at the minor league level is something that cannot be denied. He’s produced at every level he has played at, though maybe missing the power that is desired by major league teams. It’s also simply not his game to have over the fence power, but more of the gap to gap variety. Nothing wrong with that as plenty of players have that same kind of game and have found success. The drumbeats of “Crawford needs to hit the ball in the air more” have gotten louder with each rung climbed on the minor league ladder, yet here he is in the major leagues, performing decently in the early going. No one in the organization was going to expect much this year from him, preferring to lower expectations in his first go ‘round.

Yet for an extension, there has to be some kind of “above and beyond” to his game that we haven’t really seen flashes of just yet. It’s still very, very early in the season and he’s doing pretty much exactly what the team was expecting him to do, yet that isn’t the kind of offensive profile that gets one contract extensions. For those that lean on the negative side, there’s might even be the idea that if he were flashing more in his offensive game (more home run power, more balls in the air), there might even be an idea of “show it more than once” before they even thought of talking about an extension.

So while he’s doing well in his first tour around the majors, there still just isn’t enough there yet that shouts “CONTRACT EXTENSION!” for Crawford.

Andrew Painter

Pitching is expensive. We know this.

Starting pitching is really expensive. We know this as well. So why would an extension for Andrew Painter make sense over the other two? The reason is simple: ceiling and money.

Right now, the ceiling that Painter possesses is greater than anyone in the team’s minor league development system. If he reaches that ceiling, the team is looking at having another top tier starter, most days a #2, some days scraping ace-level performances. There might be a few down ballot Cy Young votes along the way, an All-Star appearance or two, all the makings of a very good pitcher. That kind of performance gets paid, handsomely.

Giving Painter an extension now might mean that the team is avoiding those awkward arbitration hearings where players hear how bad they are, contrary to their performance on the field. It would also mean locking in free agent years, however many would be agreed on, at a below market value rate, allowing the team to use possible savings to shore up different parts of the roster. As mentioned before, it makes sense from a roster standpoint so long as the money saved on one player is in turn spent on another (not necessarily a guarantee).

However…

Painter is a pitcher. Pitchers break, as Painter already has. He has made exactly one career start in the major leagues as of this writing (two by the time you read this). That is something teams rarely do for pitchers that have as little experience as Painter has. It’s not to say that teams haven’t given extensions to pitchers with little time. A list of current pitchers are:

• Brayan Bello: 6 years, $55 million – signed after he had 1+ seasons of experience
• Spencer Strider: 6 years, $75 million – highest AAV at the time for pitchers of 1+ seasons of experience
• Hunter Greene: 6 years, $53 million – signed after one year of experience

The list continues, but the theme is the same. The pitchers all had at least a year of experience pitching in the majors before the team agreed to a deal with them.

Painter, while possessing a ceiling that is on par with at least three of these names, hasn’t shown anything outside of at least one decent start that would make the Phillies want to commit long term just yet. Those talks could happen once the season is over provided Painter shows that he is worthy of the deal. There just isn’t any reason for it happen right now.

The team has received an injection of youth from Crawford and Painter so far this year and may get another if Miller proves his talent and health are worthy of a promotion. For now, though, it just doesn’t make any sense to give them guaranteed money without better (and more of a track record of) results on the field.

The time has arrived for Michael Arroyo. He’s climbed his way into the upper ranks of this system, and with a debut date rapidly approaching, he’s reached a critical point in his career that will largely signal the future trajectory of his time as a major league baseball player. A tremendously talented player, to what level Arroyo eventually ascends to seems destined to clarify after this season.

Arroyo possesses one of the most complete offensive approaches in all of minor league baseball. A balanced blend of bat-to-ball, OBP, and pop, it’s about as well-rounded as you can get for someone who just started his age 21 season this past weekend. He’s yet to post a season in the minors with an OBP south of .400, and he’s averaging 20 homers a year over the past two seasons, doing so across three different levels. The raw production is immense, even without factoring in the fact he’s accomplished this against players several years his senior.

Analyzing options for where he fits defensively is where things get tricky. Standing at 5’10 (a generous measurement), Arroyo lacks the size of a first baseman, yet his inconsistencies defensively have moved him off his natural shortstop position into a “tweener” 2B/3B profile. Unfortunately, however, his glove is yet to stabilize at either of these positions, and he’s struggled to reliably make plays that need to be clockwork at the big league level. The natural extension would be to move him to a corner outfield spot, but the arm could be a question should he end up making the move. It’s a tricky line to walk that doesn’t have a clean solution at present.

Ty France made an All-Star game as a Seattle Mariner this decade and had similar defensive limitations to Arroyo when he made his way to the organization in the Austin Nola trade. Luis Arraez is playing second base for the Giants right now and has made a mighty fine career for himself despite being a well-below-average glove. Perhaps these “comps” aren’t the most inspiring thing to hear about a player that’s been lauded in this system for years, but Arroyo is capable of putting up a 10 WAR career for the M’s, it has to be considered a development win for both the player and the organization. The bat is more than good enough to get him a shot in the majors some time this season, but finding him a long term defensive home is what will ultimately decide his ceiling as a player.