Four weeks have passed now since the beginning of the Major League Baseball season, so teams are starting to lock in and find their pace for the marathon ahead. This is especially true for contending teams who expect to still be playing six months from now.
Thursday, though, is a light day of games, with just four games on DraftKings’ DFS featured slate for today’s action, and the contest locks at 1 p.m. ET. In order to target stars, pivoting to cheaper but still productive players is pivotal when options are limited. Here are my favorites for tonight.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $150K Relay Throw [$50K to 1st].
SP Germán Márquez, Colorado Rockies at Kansas City Royals, $5,500
Originally, I was going to go for Chris Paddack ($7,000), given that he’s pitching against the Chicago White Sox — who finished last season with a .253 winning percentage and somehow have an even worse mark so far in 2025 — but that’ll be a popular option and he’s significantly more expensive than Márquez, anyway. Assuming similar production, going with Márquez instead of Paddack would allow you to add one more stud hitter into your lineup instead of settling for a mediocre option. Márquez was shellacked his last time out, giving up seven runs in just two-thirds of an inning (-15.3 FPTS) his last time out, but that outing came against the Los Angeles Dodgers’ star-studded lineup.
Thankfully, Márquez isn’t facing the Dodgers tonight. Instead, the Royals — while five games better than the White Sox record-wise — are second-to-last in OPS, fourth-to-last in hits, last in home runs, second-to-last in RBI’s, and fourth-to-last in walks. In several of these categories, then, they rank even worse than Chicago. Kansas City’s metrics are even worse against right-handed pitchers.
C Edgar Quero, Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins, $2,900
Early into his MLB career, the White Sox’s No. 6 prospect has operated in mostly a platoon with Matt Thaiss ($3,100), but given Thaiss’ hitting struggles — he’s slashing just .200/.365/.325 so far this season — Quero is the safer bet. The 22-year-old has received at least two at-bats in each of the seven games of his MLB career and has started behind the plate in four of them, serving as the designated hitter yesterday. He has reached base in five of his seven games and is slashing .333/.417/.429. While his bat speed leaves something to be desired — he only has two extra-base hits so far — his patient eye should continue to make him a fantasy asset.
Plus, while Paddack has settled down somewhat since the rocky start in the season-opening game against Chicago — in which he gave up nine runs on six hits and four walks (-12.5 FPTS) in a 9-0 loss — he still isn’t that great. With the exception of his fastball, all of his other pitches rank in the bottom quintile among MLB pitchers this season, per Statcast. And the one area in which he ranks above average — inducing chases — is an area in which Quero has also excelled early in his MLB career.
