We live in the age of the strikeout in baseball. Some find it boring and want more batted ball events, but I have a quick trick to make strikeouts way more interesting for those on the fence: Strikeout prop bets. Genius, right?
There’s a five-game MLB slate tonight. Let’s pick out the best strikeout props for Thursday evening on the DraftKings Sportsbook.
Kansas City Royals at Detroit Tigers
Michael Lorenzen Over 4.5 Strikeouts (+100)
I’ll be honest, Lorenzen isn’t the first name that pops into my mind when I think about strikeout artists. Still, the veteran RHP has been solid so far in 2025, pitching to a 3.71 ERA and a 3.60 FIP. Crucially for the purposes of this prop, Lorenzen has also consistently pitched deep into games this season, working into the sixth in all three of his outings. Efficiency doesn’t matter all the much if you can simply rely on pure volume.
However, the main selling point for this prop is matchup. The Tigers enter play on Thursday in possession of baseball’s third-highest strikeout rate (25.7%). Detroit’s offense has come crashing back down to Earth after a hot start, too. Over the past seven days, the Tigers are hitting below the Mendoza line (.189) with a 62 wRC+. With Detroit’s bats reeling, look for Lorenzen to pick up a quality start this evening at Comerica. If he can finish six frames, I’m confident five strikeouts will happen out of sheer osmosis.
St. Louis Cardinals at New York Mets
Griffin Canning Under 4.5 Strikeouts (-115)
The juice on this prop feels slightly off, doesn’t it? It’s essentially a pick ’em on DraftKings Sportsbook on whether Canning goes over or under his strikeout total on Thursday, which is strange considering the right-hander has failed to rack up at least five strikeouts in 23 of the 34 starts he’s made dating back to the beginning of last season. It’s not like Canning has suddenly turned over a new leaf in 2025, either. In fact, Canning comes into Thursday’s tilt with the Cardinals in possession of a 37th percentile strikeout rate (20.0%) and a 45th percentile whiff rate (25.0%). It’s all not very noteworthy.
It’s also probably worth mentioning that St. Louis doesn’t strikeout all that much. To wit, the Cardinals are one of just five teams currently maintaining a strikeout rate below 20%. That strikeout rate gets even lower when you isolate St. Louis’ plate appearances specifically against right-handed pitching (18.3%). The recent return of Nolan Gorman doesn’t help matters, but his swing-and-miss tendencies are an outlier on this roster.
