Only five days remain in the MLB regular season, so everything is starting to be settled. For half the league, these games are meaningless; 13 teams have already been eliminated from postseason contention, and the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees have both locked in their playoff seeding.
10 games are part of the featured late DFS slate at DraftKings, so users should have plenty of options when filling out their lineups. Plenty of stars are set to take part, including NL Cy Young Award candidates Chris Sale ($11,000) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($10,500), so in order to fit one of them in your lineup, you’ll have to complement them with bargain plays.
Here are my three favorite bang-for-your-buck options:
- SP Erick Fedde, Chicago White Sox at Kansas City Royals, $6,500: Fedde has recorded a 2.96 ERA since the start of June, while the Royals rank ninth-to-last in OPS since the start of the month.
- 2B/3B Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, Athletics vs. Los Angeles Angels, $3,400: Although Kuroda-Grauer only returned from a two-month injury absence last night and has a difficult matchup against Angels ace Walbert Ureña, he can flat-out rake, posting an .855 OPS for Triple-A Las Vegas and slashing .403/.422/.565 in his first 18 MLB games.
- 2B/OF Mauricio Dubón, Atlanta Braves vs. Cincinnati Reds, $3,200: Dubón has been hot as of late, slashing .395/.455/.626 over his last 10 games, and Andrew Abbott has a 6.56 ERA in his last 10 starts.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $100K Bat Flip [$25K to 1st]
Top MLB DFS Value Plays
SP Erick Fedde, Chicago White Sox at Kansas City Royals, $6,500
Fedde has bounced back as of late after a rough 2025 season, pitching to a 2.96 ERA in 21 appearances since the start of June and giving up no more than four earned runs in any of those outings. In fact, he’s recorded at least 16 FPTS in three of his last four appearances, and despite working predominantly as a long reliever, he’s been tasked with a relatively normal starter’s load, throwing between 80 and 90 pitches in each of his last four outings. Fedde will work behind opener Bryan Hudson ($4,000) today, but given that he’s on five days’ rest, I’d expect a full outing from him.
He has a favorable matchup against the Royals, who have long been eliminated from playoff contention and have nothing to play for. Kansas City has had baseball’s ninth-worst offense since the start of September (tied with the White Sox), and before an offensive masterpiece in last night’s series opener, it hadn’t scored more than five runs in a game since September 6. The Royals are also suited to mitigate Fedde’s biggest weakness; he sports just a first-percentile chase rate, and Kansas City chases at an above-average clip. In two starts against the Royals this season, Fedde has thrown 10.0 innings of three-run ball, averaging 10.4 FPTS per game.
2B/3B Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, Athletics vs. Los Angeles Angels, $3,400
Kuroda-Grauer is a bit of a wild card, since he only returned from a two-month absence last night, but before his injury, his MLB career was off to a stellar start (.403/.422/.565 slash line and 7.3 FPTS per game). At the time of his injury, he was on a seven-game hitting streak, hitting his first career homer earlier in the game, and he’s also posted an .855 OPS for Triple-A Las Vegas this season. Although he went hitless in his return last night, it should be only a matter of time.
To be fair, Kuroda-Grauer has a difficult matchup in Angels ace Walbert Ureña ($8,000), who just pitched seven innings of scoreless ball (31.4 FPTS) in his most recent start and has topped 24 FPTS in three of his last four games. However, Ureña’s ERA is 1.27 runs higher on the road, and he’s pitched to just a 4.11 mark in his three starts against the Athletics this season. Kuroda-Grauer has doesn’t have significant platoon splits, putting up an OPS north of 800 against right-handed pitchers across the three levels at which he’s played this season.
2B/OF Mauricio Dubón, Atlanta Braves vs. Cincinnati Reds, $3,200
Dubón has been in hot form, recording at least seven FPTS in eight of his last 10 games and averaging 9 FPTS per game across that span with a .395/.455/.526 slash line. The utilityman has been a reliable part of Atlanta’s lineup, playing in all but eight of the Braves’ games this season and playing six different positions. He’s also been better at home than on the road, averaging 7.1 FPTS per game at Truist Park.
The Honduran will face one of baseball’s more inconsistent starters tonight in the Reds’ Andrew Abbott ($6,300), who’s recorded negative-11.2, 15.2, negative-14.9, and 13.7 FPTS in his last four starts. All in all, Abbott has pitched to a 6.56 ERA in his last 10 outings, and he’s been worse at home than on the road. Dubón is an excellent contact hitter, owning a 91st-percentile whiff rate, and Cincinnati ranks dead last by Defensive Runs Saved this season.
