The day has finally arrived: Top MLB prospect Elly De La Cruz has been promoted to the big leagues by the Reds. The 21-year-old slugger will bat cleanup against the Dodgers on Tuesday night. Since all baseball eyes will be on the five-tool stud, we're hitting the Reds-Dodgers player prop market and pinpointing the best bets and top values on SuperDraft, BetMGM, and FanDuel.
A five-tool prodigy and MLB's No. 4 overall prospect, De La Cruz has become so hyped that he rose to fourth on the NL Rookie of the Year betting odds before Cincinnati even talked about promoting him, and he's skyrocketed to even shorter odds since the call-up. He was at +1800 on BetMGM a week ago; now, he's at +1000. The same hype that has fueled dramatic shifts on the futures boards has also inflated his statistical projections in the player prop market.
De La Cruz is a tough player to project. He got off to a slow 2023 in Triple-A, striking out a bunch and not hitting for a ton of power, but everything clicked a few weeks into the season. In no time, the Dominican sensation became the biggest thing in the minors. The craziest part: EDLC's batted-ball data, sprint speeds, and throwing power have all registered higher than the best of the bigs, never mind the minors. He truly seems like a unicorn of a prospect.
MORE DE LA CRUZ: Good bet for NL ROY? | What he brings to the Reds
As yours truly wrote about De La Cruz, he might be the most impactful 21-year-old in since Mike Trout. No pressure, Elly! We love the kid's chances of making tonight's clash with the Dodgers a regular-season game to remember at Great American Ball Park.
So, let's dive into the player prop offerings for this early-June tilt between the Reds and the Dodgers, including the top De La Cruz props and the best of the rest for each team. Good luck, have fun, and enjoy witnessing the debut of this young phenom.
For DFS players looking to bet over/unders on De La Cruz and other players from Reds-Dodgers, we're here to guide you in the right direction. On SuperDraft, users can win 3X the amount wagered if their two-legged player prop parlay hits. Consequently, the more legs you add to your player prop parlay (maximum six legs), the larger your potential payout becomes, but as the long odds indicate, completing a clean sweep will be challenging.
Top Reds vs. Dodgers player props for Tuesday, June 6
Best bet: Elly De La Cruz OVER 1.5 bases (SuperDraft)
De La Cruz can do it all, but his offense easily ranks as the most impressive part of his game. He has powered 12 homers, 26 extra-base hits, and 36 RBIs in just 38 triple-A games this season, and his batted-ball data looks made up. He has registered max exit-velocity speeds of up to 118.8 miles per hour, easily the hardest hit by anyone in the entire Major League Baseball system. EDLC's sprint speeds have also charted above the speediest baserunners in the bigs, even the Royals' Bobby Witt Jr.
The combination of De La Cruz's power, barrel rates, and blistering speed made him an easy choice for Reds manager David Bell to plug into the cleanup spot tonight. Even though L.A. starter Tony Gonsolin is enjoying another superb season, we like the rookie's chances of gobbling up at least two bases. He's 6-5, 200 pounds, hot as the sun right now, and has never logged a big-league at-bat. Gonsolin might need a couple of battles to figure out the youngster. Of course, it's also possible he never will and De La Cruz carries over his insane momentum from the minors to his MLB debut.
Best value bet: De La Cruz OVER 0.5 RBIs (+145 on BetMGM)
If you're looking to make a big splash and capitalize on the homer-friendly park factor, you might be more interested in De La Cruz to hit a home run (+400). However, Gonsolin has only surrendered four home runs in 35.2 innings, so consider treading lightly. The safe play — and the best value — is to bet the OVER on his more modestly priced RBI total.
With the stud rookie batting cleanup — and a solid combination of OBP and speed ahead of him in Jake Fraley, Matt McLain, and Jonathan India — De La Cruz should have multiple opportunities with runners in scoring position. This seems like a great bet to us as a low-risk, moderate-reward player prop. Cincy has enjoyed at least one RBI from its cleanup hitter in two of its past three games.
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Best power prop: Max Muncy OVER 0.5 home runs (+250)
Muncy's bounce-back campaign has been one of the stories of the young season for the Dodgers. He sits among the MLB leaders in home runs with 18 this season, and now gets to face a pitcher he has historically dominated in Luke Weaver. In 14 at-bats against Weaver, Muncy has recorded four hits, including a homer and a double.
Things have not gone well for Weaver this season. His bloated 5.36 ERA is due in large part to the 11 dingers he has allowed in just 43.2 innings. Batters have maintained a hard-hit rate of 44 percent and an average exit velocity of well over 90 mph against Weaver. Smash the OVER on a Mad Max bomb!
Best pitcher prop: Tony Gonsolin OVER 4.5 strikeouts (+105)
Gonsolin only averages 6.3 K/9 this season, but he has finished with six-plus strikeouts in two of his past five outings. The Reds have racked up the fifth-most strikeouts in the big leagues in June. They now average well over nine strikeouts per game, and they just added a free-swinging rookie who we just know will fan at least once. We like the reward-vs-risk factor here with the plus-odds on five put-downs.
Biggest offensive fade: Mookie Betts OVER 1.5 hits (+180)
We get it — it's Mookie and he's going against a below-average starter, but dive into the batter-vs-pitcher data and you'll realize that Betts has a lifetime .143 average in 15 plate appearances against Weaver! Don't blindly bet Mookie to rack up a couple of hits when he only has two hits in his entire career against this guy. Bet Muncy, Freddie Freeman, or Jason Heyward to log hits against Weaver instead. All three of those Dodgers stars enjoy lifetime averages of .308 or better against him.
