On the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, Major League Baseball is here to fill up the day with 16 games on the schedule and all 30 teams in action. The final five games of the day make up the featured Saturday evening MLB DFS slate, which gets underway at 7:05 p.m. ET. Let’s take a look at some of my favorite MLB DFS picks from that 10-team player pool this Saturday night, examining some of the top studs and values on the board.
After navigating the unseasonal nor’easter on the East Coast the last few days, fantasy baseball managers should get a break on Saturday night since the forecast for these five games looks mostly clear. The Mets could get some rain at some point during the day, but the winds are forecast to be blowing out right, clearing by game time. The Phillies and A’s also have some wind blowing out around 10 miles per hour in the forecast, which gives the offense in that late game a boost as well.
Let’s break it all down in my MLB DFS picks.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $88K Relay Throw [$20K to 1st]
PITCHER
Stud
Cristopher Sanchez, Philadelphia Phillies at Athletics, $9,000: Even in a hitter-friendly park with offense-boosting winds, I’m still high enough on Sanchez to make him my top stud pitcher to build around. He’s averaging 19.3 fantasy points per start this season while going 4-1 with a 3.10 ERA and 3.54 FIP in his 49 1/3 innings. He has 59 strikeouts in those 49 1/3 innings for a 10.8 K/9, which would be a career high by a wide margin and a significant improvement on last year’s 7.6 K/9.
Sanchez has earned at least 17.9 fantasy points in four straight starts and battled to 18.5 fantasy points in a no-decision in his most recent start, which came at Coors Field. He has gone at least six innings in three straight starts and has allowed more than three earned runs only once all season. He has both a high ceiling and a high floor coming into Saturday’s matchup against the A’s, who have dropped 10 straight games while the Phillies have won eight in a row.
Value
Luis Ortiz, Cleveland Guardians at Detroit Tigers, $7,000: Saturday’s bargain starting pitchers are a pretty high-risk group as a whole, but Ortiz has enough upside to be worth a bargain play. If you want a safer option, Jose Soriano ($8,000) and Tony Gonsolin ($8,500) can bring good midrange potential, but if you want a cheaper bargain, I really like the upside that Ortiz brings against the Tigers.
Ortiz has only the eighth-highest salary of the 10 starting pitchers in play, but he has flashed big-time upside since joining the Guardians in an offseason trade from Pittsburgh. He’s just 2-5 on the year with a startling 4.66 ERA, but he has allowed two earned runs or fewer in three of his last four starts and five of his last seven. He has a 3.18 ERA and 3.34 xFIP in his last four outings. Earlier this season, he went off for 10 strikeouts and 33 fantasy points against the Royals, and he has four starts with over 20 DraftKings points in his last seven outings.
The Tigers only managed one run total in the first two games of this series against their division rivals, and they have a top-10 K%, which could set up Ortiz in a better MLB DFS matchup than it initially appears on Saturday.
INFIELD
Stud
Trea Turner, Philadelphia Phillies at Athletics, $6,000: Turner smashed a leadoff homer on Friday night and later added a stolen base on his way to a 3-for-5 night with 27 fantasy points in the Phillies’ 4-3 victory. Turner has multiple hits in four of his last five games, stolen bases in three straight games and home runs in two of his last three.
He is hitting .344 in 21 games this month with three homers, 17 runs scored, seven stolen bases and a .386 wOBA. He is hitting a sparkling .359 against lefties this season as well with a .399 wOBA, so he should be in a smash spot against JP Sears ($7,400) and the A’s. Sears has a 5.68 ERA and 6.55 FIP in his 19 innings at Sutter Health Park, and the Phillies’ righties are in an especially favorable spot to attack this Saturday.
Stud
Logan O’Hoppe, Los Angeles Angels vs. Miami Marlins, $4,000: The Angels have surged to eight straight wins to get back to .500 on the season, and O’Hoppe has been one of the key contributors to a suddenly surging offense. O’Hoppe has hit safely in six straight starts, going 11-for-27 (.407) with a double, five homers, 12 RBIs and an average of 15.7 fantasy points per game.
The 25-year-old catcher is already up to 14 homers in just 44 games this season with a .369 wOBA, 52.4% hard-hit rate and 20.4% barrel rate. Among qualified catchers, O’Hoppe has the second-highest average exit velocity in the majors, the second-highest barrels per plate appearance and the highest hard-hit rate.
Value
Addison Barger, Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Rays, $2,900: I highlighted Barger in my MLB DFS value plays from Friday, and he continues to be a great fantasy option with a high ceiling based on his excellent batted-ball numbers.
In 29 games, Barger has impressed with a 58.8% hard-hit rate and an average exit velocity of 95.4 miles per hour. If he qualified, he would have a top-four average exit velocity and hard-hit rate in the majors.
Barger has gone 16-for-48 (.333) over his last 13 games with a stolen base, six doubles, two home runs and a .416 wOBA. He averaged 9.2 fantasy points per game over that stretch, and he’s still very affordable under $3,000 in what should be a high-upside matchup against Shane Baz ($8,300), who has allowed nine homers in nine starts this season and has a 6.03 ERA and 4.32 FIP in his 31 1/3 home innings.
OUTFIELD
Stud
Teoscar Hernandez, Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets, $4,900: Hernandez had two hits on Friday against the Mets and is 3-for-12 (.250) in his four games since returning from his two-week stay on the injured list. On the season, he’s up to .310 with 11 doubles, 10 homers and a .398 wOBA in his 37 games. His batting average and wOBA would both be career-bests if he can continue his success for the rest of the year.
Hernandez is hitting .484 against left-handed pitchers this season with five home runs in just 31 at-bats against southpaws this season. He has an amazing .659 wOBA in the split, so his matchup against lefty David Peterson ($8,700) with the wind blowing out should set him up for success in Saturday night’s game at Citi Field.
Stud
Taylor Ward, Los Angeles Angels vs. Miami Marlins, $3,800: Ward is cheap enough to be a value play but is producing like a stud over the last few weeks. He had good power numbers early in the year with six homers in his first 32 games but was only hitting .176. He has caught five in his 17 games since then, though, with nine home runs while hitting .324 with a .500 ISO and .490 wOBA. During that stretch, he has been hitting everything hard with a 52.9% hard-hit rate and 23.5% barrel rate.
In his last 12 games, Ward has produced 16.6 fantasy points per game for MLB DFS after hitting his 15th homer of the year on Friday night. He has at least 14 DraftKings points in each of his last seven contests with 20+ in each of his last three. He and O’Hoppe have a great matchup against Cal Quantrill ($6,700), so the Halos are once again a good stacking play as they look to keep cooking against the Fish.
Value
Denzel Clarke, Athletics vs. Philadelphia Phillies, $2,000: The Athletics’ recent slide has given them a chance to choose to give some more young players opportunities in their lineup. They sent JJ Bleday ($3,400) to Triple-A on Friday to open up playing room for Clarke, who MLB Pipeline ranked as the team’s No. 5 prospect.
Clarke went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his MLB debut on Friday, but he should be the team’s primary centerfielder moving forward. He’s an excellent athlete who brings both power and speed potential. He didn’t homer in Triple-A this season but hit .286 while cutting his strikeout rate from 29.9% to just 21.8%. Clarke had 12+ homers in each of his last three minor league seasons and was successful in seven of eight stolen base attempts before his promotion. For the minimum salary, he brings a high ceiling while also freeing up the salary you need to build around whichever MLB DFS superstars you think make the best plays on this five-game slate.
