Tuesday night brings the full MLB board back to life, and with the final month of the regular season underway, home run props are in the spotlight.
Three left-handed bats stand out in the plus-money market, starting with New York Mets star Juan Soto. He’s set for his fourth game back since coming off the injured list, and he’ll face former Met Freddy Peralta and the Tampa Bay Rays.
Soto has already left the yard once since returning, and he’s up to 22 homers in 87 games this season. Most of that damage has come against right-handed pitching, where he’s batting .289 with a 1.029 OPS and 18 home runs.
Peralta has been vulnerable all year, allowing 22 home runs in 27 appearances while carrying a 5.11 ERA. Soto has only one hit in his career against him, but it was a home run.
With a .948 OPS on the season and a home run rate of about once every four games, the Mets slugger looks positioned for another big swing.
Atlanta Braves outfielder Michael Harris II also draws a matchup worth circling. He homered Monday night against the San Francisco Giants, giving him 23 on the year, and he’s turned in a huge 2026 season with a .297 average, 78 RBIs and 10 stolen bases.
Against right-handed pitching, he’s hitting over .300, and 15 of his 23 homers have come in those matchups. On Tuesday, he gets Washington Nationals right-hander Jake Irvin, who led MLB in home runs allowed last season and has already surrendered 14 in 17 appearances this year.
Harris has handled Irvin well in his career, going 7-for-24 with a pair of extra-base hits. He’s also been locked in lately, hitting .380 with three home runs and a 1.092 OPS over his last 13 games.
Even if Irvin gets knocked out early, the Nationals bullpen hasn’t offered much resistance, posting a 4.94 ERA and allowing 94 home runs this season.
The third name on the board is New York Yankees slugger Luis Garcia Jr., who has been scorching over the last two weeks. He’s hitting .407 in his last seven games and .340 over his last 13, with four homers in that stretch and 28 on the season overall.
Garcia has done most of his damage against right-handed pitching, batting .295 with 25 home runs and a .912 OPS. The Yankees are trying to bounce back from a blowout loss to the Los Angeles Angels in Monday’s series opener, and they’ll see righty Grayson Rodriguez, who owns a 6.03 ERA and has allowed 10 home runs in 15 outings this season.
Garcia, who led the NL in slugging percentage before being dealt to New York at the deadline, is listed at +430, and that price makes him an appealing play if the bat stays this hot.
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
In Other News...
Yankees Have A New Rays Problem In The AL East Race
The Rays have found another useful piece in catcher Liam Hicks, a low-profile trade pickup from Miami that cost Tampa Bay only a deal built around three players outside the Marlins top 10 prospects. Since arriving in Tampa Bay, Hicks has immediately looked like the kind of quietly effective add that can change the tone of a division race, giving the Rays more production behind the plate and another bat that fits their usual knack for squeezing value out of under-the-radar moves.
For the Yankees, the concern is less about the trade itself and more about what it says about a rival that keeps finding ways to stay in the mix. Hicks has hit .328/.425/.522 in 23 games with 13 RBIs and three homers, and he comes with club control through the 2030 season, which gives Tampa Bay a longer runway than a typical deadline-style pickup. In a crowded AL East, those are the kinds of additions that can matter in September, and the Rays have another one on their hands. [Read more 🡒]
Anthony Volpes Yankees Return Just Got More Complicated
Anthony Volpes road back to the Yankees took an unwelcome turn over the weekend when he was hit by a pitch in a Triple-A game and left with a right forearm contusion, according to ESPNs Jorge Castillo. Volpe had initially stayed in the game, even stealing a base and taking another at-bat before exiting in the sixth inning, a sequence that suggested he might have avoided anything serious at first glance.
Now the bigger concern is whether the injury slows the timeline for his return to the Major Leagues. The Yankees have been waiting for Volpe to work his way back into their plans, and any setback in Triple-A adds another layer of uncertainty to a process that already requires careful timing. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Suddenly Have A Frustrating Void At A Spot They Once Owned
For years, catcher was one of the Yankees most recognizable strengths when it came to offensive production behind the plate. Since the Silver Slugger Awards were introduced in 1980, the organization has had a parade of winners there, with Jorge Posada, Mike Stanley, Brian McCann and Gary Snchez all taking turns turning the position into a source of middle-of-the-order impact.
Snchezs 2017 win looked like the high-water mark, and it has been hard for the Yankees to recreate that kind of offensive edge at catcher since. The franchise now finds itself watching a spot it once seemed to own slip into uncertainty, with current and future options carrying the burden of restoring that Silver Slugger standard even as the wider history of the award shows how rare sustained dominance at the position can be. [Read more 🡒]