This is simply one of the best days of the year for a baseball fan.
We have four Game 1’s on the docket for today, with the action getting underway at 2:00 p.m. ET in Atlanta.
Who should you be slotting in your MLB DFS lineups to save a little salary? Allow me to break down a few picks.
Top MLB DFS Value Picks
- Padres SP Michael King ($7,500) vs. Cubs
- Padres 1B Ty France ($3,900) vs. Cubs
- Astros OF Lucas Spence ($2,700) vs. White Sox
Set your DraftKings MLB DFS lineups here: MLB $200K Postseason Opener [$50K to 1st]
SP Michael King, San Diego Padres vs. Chicago Cubs, $7,500
With several teams utilizing a bullpen game on Tuesday, there aren’t a lot of viable value options at pitcher. In fact, among the names below $8,000, King and Matthew Boyd ($7,000) are the only two that have somewhat of a guaranteed workload. As such, I’ll lean towards King, who will be pitching at home and who has slightly more strikeout upside than his counterpart.
King also enters this contest on a bit of a hot streak. Over his last six starts, the veteran RHP has maintained a 2.50 ERA with a 3.43 FIP. That’s a span of time where King has not allowed a single earned run at Petco Park, a place where the 31-year-old has a 2.74 ERA for 2026 as a whole. The Cubs are arguably the best lineup in baseball, but King likes his home cooking.
1B Ty France, San Diego Padres vs. Chicago Cubs, $3,900
The Padres lead the league in batting average (.270) and expected wOBA (.329) since the All-Star break, and while it’s been Fernando Tatis Jr. ($5,900) garnering the headlines, don’t sleep on France’s contributions. In that span of 271 plate appearances, France is slashing .321/.395/.513 with a .393 wOBA and a 154 wRC+ — the 10th-highest qualified mark in MLB.
Now, he’ll draw an opposite-hand matchup with the aforementioned Boyd in Game 1 of this Wild Card series. Boyd has underwhelmed in 2026, pitching to a 16th percentile opponent batting average (.264) and a 25th percentile xERA (4.66). If that wasn’t alluring enough, consider that following Boyd will be a Cubs bullpen with the fifth-highest FIP in the sport (4.59). Pitching has not been Chicago’s strength this season. At any point.
OF Lucas Spence, Houston Astros vs. Chicago White Sox, $2,700
Why not?
Spence turned heads in the Astros’ final series of the regular season, hitting three home runs on September 24 against the lowly Athletics at Sutter Health Park. Even more interesting? They were the first three long balls of Spence’s career. The rookie only has 63 plate appearances at the MLB level, but he’s made them count, posting a 130 wRC+ and a .291 ISO. The stats under the hood also paint the picture of a massive fantasy ceiling, as Spencer has mustered a 12.1% barrel rate and a 48.5% hard hit rate in his limited sample.
While I don’t love Spence’s matchup with hard-throwing LHP Hagen Smith ($4,000), the southpaw won’t be around for long. That should mean at least a couple of chances off a right-handed bullpen arm for Spence before the day is said and done.
