MLB Best Bets Today July 24

We’ve got an extremely light day on the diamond with just five games as a lot of teams get ready to start a road trip or a homestand. Only one of the five is a day game, so we do have a little bit more cushion than usual on a Thursday to handicap the matchups and find some good wagers.

Four of the games are in the AL, with only one in the NL and no interleague play, but we will get back to that over the weekend with a set of eight series.

This article will run Monday-Saturday and I’ll write up a standalone preview for Sunday Night Baseball on Sundays. This year, we’ll also have MLB best bets from Greg Peterson posted with overnight lines.

My tracking sheet is here. For transparency sake, I also have tracking for my three MLB seasons at VSiN (2024, 2023, 2022).

Odds are from DraftKings Sportsbook because they are widely available to readers and because of some of our betting tools. I highly, highly, highly encourage you to shop around for the best lines. Sometimes they will be at DK. Oftentimes, they will not. Do what you can to shop around and get as much bang for your buck as possible.

Feel free to use my opinions and thoughts, as well as our suite of MLB Betting Tools, including the DraftKings and Circa Betting Splits, Steve Makinen’s Daily Ratings, Greg Peterson’s Daily Lines, the 1st 5 Innings Analyzer, and Umpire Stats. Check out our new MLB tools powered by Ballpark Pal: Strikeout Projections, Park Factors, and YRFI Report.

Here are the MLB best bets today for July 24:

Toronto Blue Jays at Detroit Tigers (-132, 8.5)

6:40 p.m. ET

Two teams going in opposite directions square off today, but this line might tell a bit of a story. The Blue Jays have surged to the top spot in the AL East and just took two of three from the rival Yankees, while the Tigers have dropped five of six in the second half and nine of 10 overall, as they entered the All-Star Break with a four-game skid.

Eric Lauer and Reese Olson are today’s listed starters on a very hot night in Detroit with temps around 90 and showers hovering around. So, why does this line tell a story and why do I like the bumbling Tigers?

Well, let’s start with this. Detroit is fifth in wOBA at .330 against LHP and their 112 wRC+ ranks sixth. Toronto is a good offense both ways, but the Tigers are clearly better against LHP than RHP, so that should help their slumping offense a bit here.

But, the two biggest things for me are situational for Toronto. They’re just off of that very emotionally-charged Yankees series, so a letdown would be understandable. There is a statistical angle here, too, though. The Blue Jays have been unbelievable at home offensively, posting a .347 wOBA and a 123 wRC+, which both rank second to the Dodgers…

On the road, though, Toronto is just 24th in wOBA at .298 and also 24th in wRC+ at 90. In 54 games at home, the Jays have scored 289 runs (5.35 R/G). In 48 road games, they’ve scored 185 runs (3.85 R/G) and have been outscored by 27 runs. They are 37-17 at home and 23-25 on the road. This one is on the road and I don’t see a big starting pitching edge for the Jays. In fact, I could make a pretty strong case for preferring Olson over Lauer.

Toronto has also used Jeff Hoffman and Yariel Rodriguez four of the last six days. The Tigers pen is much more rested.

Pick: Tigers -132