Best Home Run Picks for Opening Day – Get a +750 HR Pick

• It’s Opening Day 2026, which means we’re going to need some dinger bets
• We’ve got decent weather in more than one MLB city today, so we could see some balls flying
• See below for my three best home run plays today

Major League Baseball is back, and that means one thing: dingers. One of the most electric bets a human being can make is the almighty home run bet. These things have everything, and I mean everything. For starters, we’re talking home runs. The home run is the most exciting thing that can happen in the game of baseball. It just is. Guys will literally do anything to hit more home runs. We’ve all seen them. It’s wild.

From a betting standpoint, we get to take all that electricity and desperation and combine it with giant prices. We’re talking +600-type moves here, people. We haven’t lived until we’ve cashed multiple +600 bets in a week. It’s glorious. The best part is, baseball is every day, so we get shots at glory every single day of the week. I honestly don’t think there is anything that compares to betting dingers in the sports world. It’s unto itself. Don’t believe me? Fine. Take these three guys to hit a home run today, and afterwards, tell me your life hasn’t been changed forever. Welcome to the club.

Opening Day Home Run Picks (March 26)

Each one of the home run picks for Opening Day is at least +470, meaning if we bet the same amount on each player and one of them hits a dinger, we would profit.

MLB odds as of March 26 at FanDuel and DraftKings. Check out SBD’s take on the best sports betting app for MLB.

Opening Day HR Pick #1 – Samuel Basallo to Hit a Home Run

I can already hear the haters now, “Slop, who the hell is this guy?” A fun fact in the home run world is this: we don’t have to know who a guy is to bet on him. In fact, sometimes it’s better if we don’t know who he is. The thing with Basallo is, even if you aren’t an Oriole fan, you know who he is. The guy absolutely rakes, and this season, he will become a household name.

On top of that, he’s got a date with Joe Ryan today, which makes his ascent to glory a little easier.

Here’s the thing with Ryan: he gave up 26 home runs last season, and 14 of them were via the fastball and splitter to left-handed hitters. Why is that a problem? Because Samuel absolutely demolishes those exact pitches from righties. He almost killed a couple of people in the stands because of those exact pitches during Spring Training this season. It was a miracle no one was hurt. Hopefully, no one gets hurt out there today. Feels right.

• The Bet: Samuel Basallo to Hit a Home Run (+470) – FanDuel

Opening Day HR Pick #2 – Matt McLain to Hit a Home Run

We would have to be crazy to consider Spring Training numbers when handicapping the regular season. The Spring numbers just don’t matter for these guys because they’re all working on different stuff. Still, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Matt McLain was absolutely destroying baseballs in March. There are a few that were never even found.

Now he gets a matchup with Garrett Crochet that might just be the best possible matchup for McLain. Some guys have all the luck.

Crochet isn’t exactly a target for home runs, but he’s not NOT a guy we target either. The guy gave up 24 dongs last season, and 21 of them were to right-handed hitters. Of those 21, 11 of them were four-seam fastballs. That just happens to be the same exact pitch Matt McLain has been demolishing all Spring. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Feels free.

• The Bet: Matt McLain to Hit a Home Run (+750) – DraftKings

Opening Day HR Pick #3 – Teoscar Hernandez to Hit a Home Run

The games start in the afternoon and go all night, so it’s only right that we take a guy from the night games. We want to make Opening Day last as long as possible, so this is the obvious move. The only downside of home run bets is that after your guy goes yard, there’s nothing else to look forward to. Unless you have another guy coming up later.

Lucky for us, Teoscar Hernandez has a night game, and he’s going to see Zac Gallen. I feel like we just hit the lottery.

The haters are going to say that Hernandez is only 1-7 against Gallen in his career, but as usual, the haters lack vision. For starters, Hernandwz crushed that one hit. On top of that, Hernandez is coming into this thing as hot as a human being can legally be. On the flip side, Gallen gave up four home runs in his last two Spring starts. Guy looked like a little leaguer out there. I almost feel bad about what Hernandez is going to do to him tonight. Tough scene.

• The Bet: Teoscar Hernandez to Hit a Home Run (+480) – FanDuel