Caleb Wilfinger
The 2025 MLB season keeps rolling along, and Friday features a 9-game slate for us to enjoy. I’m 34-24 on my MLB best bets this year and the Pickswise MLB handicapping team as a whole is 77-57-6 in this article series this season.
Let’s keep it going as we get into today’s top picks on Saturday, June 28. You can also find out our MLB picks for EVERY GAME today.
MLB best bet: New York Yankees -1.5 over Athletics (-115)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -125.
For my first MLB best bet for today, let’s head go back to the well in New York for a matchup between the Athletics and Yankees. New York has struggled of late, but the Yankees have now won back-to-back games and should be in position to succeed once again on Saturday. After a quiet first game from the Yankee bats, Aaron Judge and company will have the good fortune of taking on Athletics starter JP Sears (4.36 xERA, .262 xBA, bottom 6% ground-ball rate), who is certainly due for some regression in his upcoming starts. On the other side, New York starter Clarke Schmidt is trending in the right direction and his expected metrics actually suggest that he’s due for some positive regression (2.66 xERA), which should come at home against a middling Athletics lineup. Let’s take the Yankees on the run line on Saturday.
MLB best bet: Cincinnati Reds F5 -0.5 over San Diego Padres (-110)
Odds available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -120.
Our 2nd MLB best bet today takes us to Cincinnati, where I’m targeting the Reds in the first 5 innings. Tampa Bay should be in a good position to succeed thanks to Andrew Abbott getting the start in this one. The Reds’ starter has posted a 1.79 ERA on the season, and he also has allowed just 9 earned runs over his last 10 outings. He’ll be taking on a suddenly struggling Padres lineup that was just shut out in the series opener. Conversely, San Diego will counter with Randy Vasquez, and his poor expected metrics (5.69 xERA, bottom 1% strikeout rate) suggest that he is due for some significant regression in the next few outings. Ultimately, I’ll take the better starter at home to lead his team to a lead after 5 innings on Saturday.
