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Bo Bichette took a lot of heat for how he started his New York Mets career, but he has quietly been one of their best hitters in April.

He has a nice matchup to build on his increased production and headlines my three MLB player props for Saturday, April 18.

Best MLB player props today

Player	Pick	Odds
Bo Bichette	Over 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBI	-165
Alec Bohm	Over 0.5 Singles	-135
Tyler Soderstrom	Over 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBI	-180

Bo Bichette Over 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBI

Bo Bichette struggled out of the gate but is starting to turn things around, even as the Mets continue to lose games.

Bichette has hit .274 since the beginning of April while leading the team with a 45.8% hard hit rate. He is finding more gaps and hitting the ball harder, which is a good sign.

His improved play should lead to healthy production on Saturday afternoon. Jameson Taillon (4.86 ERA, 6.27 FIP) has been very hittable this season, and Bichette has hit .375 over 24 at-bats against Taillon in his career.

• Time: 2:20 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: SNY, MARQ

Alec Bohm Over 0.5 Singles

Alec Bohm has struggled to generate hits but he owns a .151 average on balls put in play, which is unsustainably low and lightyears away from where it should be.

For perspective, eight other Phillies have had at least 50 plate appearances. None of them have hit less than .250 on balls put in play.

Bohm is due for some regression, and this isn’t a bad spot for it to kick in. Bohm is 4-for-13 against Chris Sale in his career, and all four hits went for singles.

He also managed a .295 average against lefties last year. He’s clearly capable of hitting them.

• Time: 7:15 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: FOX

Tyler Soderstrom Over 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBI

Erick Fedde was crushed by left-handed hitters a season ago, allowing a .320 average, .397 wOBA, and 1.85 homers per nine innings.

He throws the sweeper, cutter, and changeup at almost identical rates against lefties, and Tyler Soderstrom owns fantastic numbers against that mix. He is hitting .333 with a .286 ISO and .423 wOBA.

Soderstrom should have the edge in this matchup and will get to face the 26th-ranked bullpen by ERA when Fedde departs.

Factor in Soderstrom also plays in one of the league’s most hitter-friendly ballparks — and weather approaching 80F is expected — and all signs point to a productive outing.

• Time: 4:05 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: CHSN, NBCSCA

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The Phillies fans are pretty much over Taijian Walker. He’s yet to escape the first inning this year without allowing multiple runs. He’s on the final year of a four year, 72 million dollar contract. It’s been 3 plus seasons of 4.97/5.29/4.88 ball with 1.5 WAR (before last night’s shelling). Phillies fans want him gone, and the media doesn’t see interested in seeing him start again. So they could stuff him in their bullpen for now. Though the Philadelphia bullpen is not bad by FIP standards. Their 2.80 FIP is obscured by their 4.66 ERA (again, before last night’s shelling). But if he can’t escape the first inning, how is the bullpen going to work out?

So what would happen if they put him on the street and the Braves gave him a ride? The Braves have managed to get a song out of cheaply acquired free agent pitchers lately. Jose Suarez has a 2.37 FIP (through last night). Martin Perez has been decent, and was excellent while wind assisted last night. Joey Wentz (4.92/3.43/4.00 with the Braves last year) was prepared to make a run at the starting rotation before injuring his knee. Even Osvaldo Bido wasn’t entirely unhelpful before meeting the Guardians.

So would the Braves grab Walker if available? I mean, if no other organization wants him and he wants to play the DFA game like some others, maybe. NL East teams do like to pass around players. But mostly, hahahahahaha no. A lot would have to happen with the Braves and Taijuan for them to find each other. Here’s hoping they never do.

Yeah no, but let’s watch the dingers again anyway.

It took some unexpected heroics from Ryan McMahon, but the Yankees picked up a much-needed victory in their series opener against the Royals. Having just played a very frustrating series against the Angels, the last thing they needed was a dumb loss to open the set against Kansas City.

While the Yankees wouldn’t lose any ground on Friday night, let’s see if they gained on anyone in today’s Rivalry Roundup.

Boston Red Sox (8-11) 1, Detroit Tigers (10-10) 0 (10 innings)

Ranger Suarez and Casey Mize put on a pitchers’ duel at Fenway, with the Red Sox scoring the game’s only run on Masataka Yoshida’s walk-off single in the 10th inning.

Not only did the Red Sox get the better of Detroit in the end, Suarez won the duel as well. He ended up going eight innings, allowing just two hits and a walk. For the Tigers, Mize struck out more batters, K’ing seven, but he went 6.2 frames, having given up three hits and a walk.

However as those numbers indicate, it’s not as if either teams was just wastefully blowing chances. Sure, they had their runners, but neither team could breakthrough until the game went to extras.

In the 10th, a flyout allowed the Tigers to move their auto-runner to third, but they couldn’t bring them home the last 90 feet. Boston then took advantage in the bottom of the 10th, as after an out and a walk, Yoshida chopped through a single to walk it off against Will Vest.

St. Louis Cardinals (11-8) 9, Houston Astros (8-13) 4

Nolan Gorman’s three-run homer in the seventh off Bryan Abreu helped the Cardinals break open a game against the Astros, allowing them to pull away for the win.

The game went back-and-forth early. While the Cardinals scored the game’s first three runs, the Astros pulled two runs back in the bottom of the third. St. Louis then added a run back to their lead, but Jose Altuve’s fifth-inning home run got Houston back within a run.

However Gorman’s homer gave the Cardinals a four-run advantage, and St. Louis went on to tack on a couple more runs, ensuring that the final couple innings weren’t super stressful. The Astros have now lost 11 of their last 14 games.

Texas Rangers (11-9) 5, Seattle Mariners (8-13) 0

Jacob deGrom and the Rangers’ bullpen combined to shut out the Mariners, as Seattle ended up leaving nine runners on base in another tedious loss for their home fans.

The Mariners will probably end up shaking their heads about this one, as they went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position, in addition to the nine left on base. Besides that, Texas scored three of their runs in the final three innings, meaning Seattle had plenty of time before that with the game still close.

deGrom was okay, but only lasted four innings, having allowed four hits and two walks. Texas’ bullpen picked things up the rest of the way, although every reliever put at least one Seattle runner on.

On the offensive side of things, the Rangers scored in the game’s very first at-bat, when Brandon Nimmo homered. In total, Texas recorded 15 hits, with Wyatt Langford going 3-for-5 and driving in one of the runs.

Arizona Diamondbacks (12-8) 6, Toronto Blue Jays (7-12) 3

The Diamondbacks roughed up Eric Lauer, while Michael Soroka was pretty good for them to take the opener of this interleague clash.

Toronto busted out an opener for this one, sending Braydon Fisher to the mound to start this game. He got through the first inning fine, but when the Jays turned to Lauer as the bulk guy, Arizona started to get going. While Toronto actually took a 1-0 lead in the fourth, Arizona immediately answered with a Nolan Arenado homer in the bottom of the fourth, and then took the lead thanks to Corbin Carroll and Jose Fernandez in the fifth.

While a Myles Straw homer got Toronto back within a run, Soroka ended up giving Arizona seven good innings, with just those two runs allowed. Arizona eventually tacked on, with Toronto scoring more run, but not doing too much else over the final innings. The Jays remain in the AL East cellar.

Other Games

• Baltimore Orioles (10-10) 6, Cleveland Guardians (11-10) 4: This game remained scoreless until the bottom of the seventh, when the Guardians broke through with four runs. Except, the Orioles then answered with six runs in the top of the eighth, swinging the game back in the other direction. Jeremiah Jackson’s three-run homer to give Baltimore the lead ended up being the game-decider as the O’s held on after that.

Good morning Birdland,

The Orioles offense is having a weird weekend in Cleveland. The were no-hit through eight innings on Thursday, but rallied late and got the tying run on base before dropping the opener. On Friday, they would be shutout for seven innings before erupting for six runs in the eighth, which would prove enough to win the game 6-4 and even up the series.

Jeremiah Jackson came through with yet another clutch home run, a three-run shot. He now leads the team with 17 RBI on the season. Who had that on their 2026 Orioles bingo card? Probably a few more people than those that expected *checks notes*…Weston Wilson and Jonathan Rodríguez (?) to contribute to any wins at all.

At 10-10, these Orioles aren’t going to be confused for some sort of juggernaut. And if they are going to turn into a true contender, there are plenty of improvements to be made. But considering the context of their current performance, I’m actually encouraged.

The offense is currently surviving on the backs of Jackson and Leody Taveras. At some point, Gunnar Henderson and Pete Alonso are going to find some consistency. Taylor Ward will eventually homer, probably a bunch. Samuel Basallo is too talented to keep hitting .148. Adley Rutschman is going to get healthy. Maybe those things don’t all happen at once, but they will happen, and when they do the offense is going to be tougher to handle.

So what does success look like for the Orioles right now? Having a .500 record feels fine to me. Keep their head above water and buy time for those positive regressions to come. This was never a 100-win roster anyway. It’s an 85-ish win roster with upside, especially if they add at the trade deadline. Staying close to that pacing while you are missing several key pieces is a win.

The vibes are good for this squad. Wins like last night only add to that and inch them ever closer to healthier and better days for the roster.

Links

Holliday set to begin new rehab assignment, Adley making progress toward return | MLB.com
It sounds like Rutschman will be back within the week, although he may need a brief minor league rehab. Jackson Holliday is back on his rehab this weekend. The future is less clear for Tyler O’Neill, who is still dealing with concussion symptoms.

Each glove tells a story: Vignettes from the Orioles clubhouse | The Baltimore Banner
This is a fun one! Blaze Alexander rocks a glove with the initials of someone else’s wife and kids on it because it’s literally not his glove. Amazing. Also, this article should have been called “A Glove Story.”

More questions attached to Orioles | Roch Kubatko
Lots of roster questions. They are valid! But also, they feel like questions for another day. How do the Orioles make space for X player when they return? That answer is going to change depending on who is healthy at the time. Holliday could be fit right when another infielder picks up a nick. The Oriole would probably prefer to just get everyone healthy. That is probably an unrealistic hope.

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

• Pete Stanicek turns 63 today. A player so nice, the Orioles drafted him twice; in the 13th round in 1984 and then (after he didn’t sign the first time) in the ninth round in ‘85. He would end up spending little time at second base, third base, and left field with the big league squad between 1987 and ‘88.
• Rich Bordi is 67 years old. A reliever for nearly a decade in the bigs, Bordi played for five different teams. That included the 1986 season in Baltimore, where he had a 4.46 ERA over 107 innings.

This day in O’s history

2013 – The Orioles win their first extra-inning game of the year, beating the Rays 10-6 on a walk-off grand slam from Matt Wieters. Dating back to the previous season, the O’s have now won 17 consecutive extra-inning games.

Rangers 5, Mariners 0

• That’s four straight wins against the Mariners this season.
• That’s a good, right?
• The Rangers registering a shutout with Jacob deGrom on the mound isn’t exactly shocking. The Rangers registering a shutout with Jacob deGrom having a difficult time of it on the mound, though?
• deGrom only went four innings in the game, and only faced 17 batters. The problem was an inability to put away batters — deGrom used a whopping 88 pitches to get through those 17 batters, an average of over 5 pitches per at bat.
• The first inning featured 32 pitches, as deGrom loaded the bases on a Cal Raleigh four pitch walk, a Julio Rodriguez double, and a Josh Naylor 10 pitch walk before striking out Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley to end the inning.
• After a relatively quick 13 pitch second inning, deGrom needed 25 pitches to get through the four batters he faced in the third, then 18 pitches for the four batters he faced in the fourth.
• deGrom’s slider, which is usually so effective at getting whiffs, wasn’t doing it against the M’s — out of 24 sliders he threw, just two resulted in swings and misses, and he generated just nine swings and misses in the game.
• The Mariners had a whopping 27 foul balls against deGrom, resulting in extended at bats and, ultimately, deGrom leaving the game after just four innings, despite having allowed no runs.
• It has to have been maddening for Mariners fans to see deGrom get chased after just four innings, get into the Rangers’ grab-bag bullpen early, and still get shut out.
• Gavin Collyer made his second major league appearance, threw the ball hard, struck out two, gave up a walk and a hit in 1.1 innings, and ended up picking up his first major league win.
• Tyler Alexander, Jalen Beeks, Cole Winn and Jacob Latz followed Collyer, and in all, the Ranger pen allowed just two hits and three walks over the final five innings of the game.
• The closest the Mariners came to scoring was on a two out J.P. Crawford single off of Alexander in the sixth. Josh Naylor, who was at second, was sent home, but was thrown out easily.
• Wouldn’t that make you mad, if you were a Mariners fan? It would make me mad.
• Well, not mad. I’m mellowing in my old age. I don’t get mad as often. But, you know, it would generate feelings that are in the same overall category as mad.
• I mean, I guess we can say for discussion purposes mad. I don’t want to get into a semantic argument here.
• But I wouldn’t get mad. Don’t put in the paper I got mad.
• The Rangers offense banged out fifteen hits, and one would think that would mean more than five runs, so I guess if you want to be a glass-half-empty guy you can say the Rangers should have done more damage than they did, but whatevs.
• Every Ranger starter got a hit except for Josh Smith, whose early struggles continue.

• Brandon Nimmo started the game off with a home run. We like leadoff home runs.
• Corey Seager, who has been slumping recently, returned from a day off with a 2 for 4 game that included two doubles and also featured him getting hit on the foot with a pitch.
• I wouldn’t want to be hit by a pitch, but I guess if you’re going to be hit by a pitch, the foot is probably a good place to be hit.
• Wyatt Langford, off to a very slow start to the year, had three singles, which is good. None of them were hit particularly well, though, and one of them was of the softly hit pop up variety. He also struck out twice. Still, we will take the three hits, and hopefully that will help get Langford going.
• Josh Jung had three doubles in five at bats, and even the double play he hit into was 99 mph off the bat. His OPS on the year is now up to 795.
• Jake Burger had three more hits, pushing his OPS to 810.
• Even Joc Pederson did some things, drawing a walk and hitting a single in three plate appearances. Way to go, Joc!
• Joc’s birthday is coming up on the 21st. I hope everyone has thought about what they want to get him.
• Jacob deGrom topped out at 98.3 mph with his fastball, averaging 96.5 mph. Gavin Collyer maxed out at 99.7 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s sinker hit 91.3 mph. Jalen Beeks’ fastball reached 93.7 mph. Cole Winn touched 95.4 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz hit 94.5 mph with his fastball.
• Jake Burger had a 198.0 mph single and a 108.5 mph single. Corey Seager had a 109.4 mph double and a 102.4 mph lineout. Josh Jung had a 105.0 mph double and a 101.9 mph double, with his other double being 98.8 mph. Danny Jansen had a 103.0 mph double. Brandon Nimmo’s homer was 102.4 mph.
• Can the Rangers keep this going? Tune in on Saturday and find out!