Zach Thompson details his top strikeout props for Saturday’s MLB slate, including bets for Michael Wacha, Parker Messick and Jack Leiter.

Saturday is another jam-packed day for Major League Baseball with all 30 teams continuing their weekend series. A few aces are back on the mound this Saturday night, but for the most part, we’re towards the back end of most teams’ third turn through the rotation. With more data available on both the starting pitchers and the lineups they’re facing, let’s take a look at the slate on tap for Saturday and pick out a few strikeout props that make sense to attack on DraftKings Sportsbook.

Taking a look at the strikeout props on the board on DraftKings Sportsbook for Saturday matchups, my three favorite plays are from Michael Wacha, Parker Messick and Jack Leiter.

Top MLB Strikeout Props

Michael Wacha 5+ Strikeouts (-114)

Wacha has been excellent to start the season, allowing just one run in 13 innings against the Braves and Guardians. He had seven strikeouts in Atlanta in his first outing of the year, but then only had three strikeouts in his second start against the Guardians. Cleveland has done a good job minimizing its strikeout rate overall this year and Wacha only had six whiffs on the Guardians’ 41 swings. He had 17 whiffs in his first start against the Braves.

His seven-strikeout game is probably too high an expectation to keep going forward, but he has a good chance to get at least five punchouts against the White Sox. The White Sox lead the MLB with a 28.4% strikeout rate in the early going this season. Chicago has 143 strikeouts in 14 games, averaging more than one strikeout per inning. On Friday, the White Sox struck out 11 times and had just two hits in their shutout loss, so Wacha will look to pick up where Kris Bubic left off after his dominant performance Friday.

Parker Messick 5+ Strikeouts (-118)

The Guardians’ lefty impressed in his first taste of the majors last season with 38 strikeouts in 39 2/3 innings across seven games. He had an even better K/9 rate in Triple-A, where he produced a 10.9 K/9 with 119 punchouts in 98 2/3 innings.

The 25-year-old earned a spot in the starting rotation again this season with a strong Spring Training, and he is off to a good start in the regular season as well. In his first start, he had five strikeouts on the road in Los Angeles in a tough matchup. He was home for his most recent outing, racking up six strikeouts in five innings against the Cubs.

He’ll be back on the road for this outing against the Braves, but he has a good chance of picking up at least five more strikeouts. The Braves have a relatively low 19.4% strikeout rate overall this season, but Messick’s strong outings to start the season give him a high upside in this start in Atlanta. The fiery Messick is easy to cheer for with his excellent overall stuff.

Jack Leiter 6+ Strikeouts (-107)

Jack Leiter is another 25-year-old arm with electric stuff to back on Saturday night. The former top prospect has been extremely productive in his first two starts of the year, racking up 17 strikeouts in 11 innings against the Reds and Orioles. He’s only given up three runs on nine hits, but his strikeout upside is what makes him worth a look on Saturday, even in a tough matchup.

Leiter will face the Dodgers in Los Angeles, but even though they score a lot of runs, the Dodgers have also been a little strikeout-prone in the early part of the season. They have averaged 8.4 strikeouts per game this year, so if Leiter continues to get such good movement on his circle change, he has a great chance to pick up at least six punchouts.

Jack Leiter (5IP 4H 1ER 1BB 9K) was dynamic in the Rangers loss to the Reds. He struck out 9 over 5 innings of work and walked just one. His circle change was our SP Pitch of the Day pic.twitter.com/Gsjl8HnlaH

— Baseball Prospectus (@baseballpro) April 6, 2026