MLB Friday Picks for 24th of May 2024

It’s a 15-game slate for Friday, which means we’ve got every MLB team taking the field. The last few weeks had a day game kicking off the Friday festivities, but all 15 games are primed for evening baseball at 6:40 PM ET. For tonight, May 24th, we’ve got our best MLB picks for today:

MLB Friday predictions

Chicago Cubs vs St. Louis Cardinals - Chicago Cubs -1.5 (+135)

Matt Chapman Over 1.5 Total Bases (+125)

George Kirby Over 17.5 Outs Recorded (-192)

Chicago Cubs vs St. Louis Cardinals best bet: Chicago Cubs -1.5 (+135)

We’ll begin our MLB picks for Friday’s games with a wager on the Chicago Cubs heading to Busch Stadium to face off against their biggest rival, the St. Louis Cardinals. Shota Imanaga takes the mound for the Cubs and against Cardinals hurler Miles Mikolas. 

Imanaga has been nothing short of incredible for the Cubs, with a perfect 5-0 record, a minuscule 0.84 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and a 58:9 K:BB ratio. While Imanaga has won five decisions, the Cubs have won all but just one of his nine starts this season. The Cardinals have been disappointing this season but have picked it up over the last 10 games, as they’ve won eight of those ten, including their first season sweep over the ascending Baltimore Orioles.

Imanaga has been impenetrable this season, and that run should continue against what is, on the whole, a subpar offensive club in St. Louis. We’ll take the Cubs -1.5 (+135) tonight as a continued bet on Imanaga’s dominance in 2024.

MLB player prop pick: Matt Chapman O1.5 Total Bases (+125)

The next game we’ll target for Friday’s MLB picks is the San Francisco Giants vs New York Mets, with the focus centered around one of the hottest hitters in baseball over the last week or so, Giants’ third baseman Matt Chapman. 

Chapman is working on a five-game hitting streak with home runs in back-to-back games and extra-base hits in four of his last seven games. He has raised his OPS from .586 two weeks ago up to .736, so he’s feeling it. He’ll be facing Christian Scott, an under-the-radar prospect evoking some to Shane Bieber, but hasn’t thrown more than 90 innings in any professional season. Keeping the torrid run going and Matt Chapman O1.5 Total Bases (+125) should be on the menu for tonight. 

MLB player prop pick: George Kirby O17.5 Outs Recorded (-192)

Our final best bet for this evening’s matchups features the Seattle Mariners vs Washington Nationals tilt and Seattle’s young right-hander George Kirby. After coming out of April with four rocky starts (5.33 ERA), he’s normalized it since then, and his ERA now sits at 3.99. 

Through four starts in May, he has a 3.75 ERA, and since his final start in April, Kirby has at least six innings pitched in all but one of his last five starts. As the preeminent control pitcher in baseball, Kirby works economically and against the Nationals tonight, Kirby should be able to get into the seventh inning for the first-place Mariners.

Taking George Kirby O17.5 Outs Recorded (-192) is a solid bet tonight against a pedestrian Washington Nationals lineup who have lost seven of their last eight games and have only put up three runs just twice in that span.