Major League Baseball starts the week with 10 games on the schedule on Monday night. In one of the marquee matchups of the night, the Padres roll into the Bronx to take on the Yankees in New York. In the first game of the series, let’s look at some overall strategy for the Padres vs. Yankees MLB DFS. This is one of the three matchups availabe for as single-game showdown contests on DraftKings this Monday.
The pitching matchup for Monday night is scheduled to be Nick Pivetta ($12,000) for the Padres against Carlos Rodon ($11,600) for the Yankees. Pivetta has been very good for the Padres after signing as a free agent, going 5-1 with a 1.78 ERA in six starts. Veteran lefty Rodon has gone 4-3 in his seven starts with a 3.43 ERA.
Let’s take a look at what to expect and how to attack this Padres vs. Yankees MLB DFS matchup from a DraftKings Showdown perspective.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB Showdown $5K Extra Inning [$1K to 1st] (SD at NYY)
Padres vs. Yankees DFS Showdown Strategy
Captain’s Pick
Aaron Judge ($14,400): Judge is likely to be a very chalky Captain’s Pick play given how outstanding he has been lately. The fact that he’s obvious doesn’t mean he’s wrong, though, and there are other places to differentiate your lineup after starting with Judge in the Captain’s Pick spot.
Judge is hitting an impressive .423 on the season with 11 home runs and a .540 wOBA. Eight of those 11 home runs have come at home at Yankee Stadium, where he has a .594 wOBA and 299 wRC+.
So far this season, Judge has been smashing everyone, but he has a good history against Pivetta specifically as well. He is 5-for-18 with five walks against the former Red Sox starting pitcher with two of those five hits being home runs.
He is expensive to build around as a Captain’s Pick, but we’ll cover some cheap UTIL plays to help balance him out below. He’s worth paying up for with 15+ fantasy points in four of his last five games.
Trent Grisham ($10,500): If you are looking to stack Judge and other top plays in UTIL spots, Grisham is a solid, more affordable Captain’s Pick option who also comes in swinging a hot stick.
Grisham has been hitting leadoff against right-handed starting pitchers and is 11-for-39 (.282) with four home runs over his last 10 games. He has averaged 9.1 fantasy points per game over that 10-game span with double-digit fantasy points in half of those 10 games.
Grisham could get a little extra boost from facing his former team as well. He played four seasons in San Diego before being traded to New York along with Juan Soto before last season.
Pivetta is typically solid against left-handed hitters like Grisham, but getting a leadoff hitter in front of Judge at just $10,500 in the Captain’s spot or $7,000 in a UTIL spot makes Grisham a great option to build around as part of your Padres vs. Yankees DFS strategy.
UTIL Plays
Carlos Rodon ($11,600): Both starting pitchers have potential, but of the two, Rodon is the better DFS option since he’ll be facing the Padres in a more favorable matchup. San Diego just swept the Pirates but has scored only 36 runs in its last 11 games (3.3 runs per game) with a .103 team ISO and .280 team wOBA over that stretch. The Padres are also lefty-heavy, so Rodon should excel on the strong side of his career splits even though lefties have hit him well at Yankee Stadium in a small sample size this season.
Jorbit Vivas ($3,400): Vivas is the first of my two value specials that make paying up for Judge and Rodon or other high-priced options possible in this Padres vs. Yankees DFS matchup. The Yankees called up Vivas when they placed Jazz Chisholm Jr. (oblique) on the injured list. Vivas will get playing time while Jazz is out, and he is 1-for-5 with two walks, a run scored, and two RBI in his first three games in the majors. In Triple-A, the 24-year-old lefty hit .319 in 26 games with two home runs and six stolen bases, showing good stolen base upside.
Luis Campusano ($3,000): I highlighted Campusano as one of my top DFS values on the entire Monday night slate at the minimum salary. He brings enough salary relief and upside after his success at Triple-A to be worth considering in Showdown format too, even though there is no advantage for catcher eligibility. If you use Campusano and Vivas, that leaves plenty of salary to build the top end of your DFS lineup with whatever stars you decide to target.
Fades
Fernando Tatis Jr. ($9,200): If you’re a regular reader of my content, you know that Tatis is a regular part of my targets for Showdown slates and full-slate DFS. I love his multi-category upside and play him more than almost any other star. However, I can’t pay up for him in this matchup on the road, especially with so many other bats available near the same salary that I prefer as UTIL plays.
Tatis is hitting only .206 (7-for-34) this season against left-handed pitching with a .292 wOBA. He also has done most of his damage at home with just two of his eight stolen bases and three of his eight home runs coming on the road. He obviously still has upside and the potential to make me pay for fading him, but I’m just looking other places in this showdown matchup.
THE OUTCOME
The Yankees have had mixed results against Pivetta in the past, but I expect them to bounce back after dropping two of three to the Rays this past weekend. Rodon has been solid enough to shut down the lefty-heavy Padres, and Judge has been hot enough to carry the Bronx Bombers to the win on Monday night.
For Padres vs. Yankees DFS contests, I’m building around Judge with Vivas and Campusano as bargain UTIL to make a nice mix of big bats available for my other roster spots.
Final Score: Yankees 5, Padres 3
