Because it’s a Thursday, not every team is in action, as there are just 10 games, four of which will begin in the early afternoon. As a result, only the six evening games are part of tonight’s featured MLB DFS contest on DraftKings.
A comparatively compressed slate of options requires more careful selection, as the dearth of stars means picking the right value options to complement them is pivotal.
Here’s one pitcher, one infielder, and one outfielder I would consider:
- Reds SP Rhett Lowder ($6,000) vs. Pirates
- Mariners OF Dominic Canzone ($3,500) vs. Dodgers
- Braves SS Jim Jarvis ($3,000) vs. Nationals
Set your DraftKings MLB DFS lineups here: MLB $150K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st]
SP Rhett Lowder, Cincinnati Reds vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, $6,000
Lowder began the season as a starter and was pretty excellent through the end of April, posting a 3.18 ERA and averaging 15.1 FPTS per game in that stretch. Then, after a couple of rough starts, a stint on the Injured List, and a stint as a reliever, he’s back in the Reds’ rotation, pitching five innings of one-hit, two-run (12.8-FPT) ball against the St. Louis Cardinals. He’s had a couple of proper blow-ups, giving up six or more earned runs on three separate occasions, but he’s also given up two or fewer 10 times, including seven starts. He threw 76 pitches against St. Louis, so he should be stretched out to a relatively normal starter’s load.
I’m banking on the good version of Lowder to show up tonight. Pittsburgh started off the season hot offensively, ranking second in OPS before the All-Star break, but since the break, the Pirates rank sixth-to-last in that stat. They’re dealing with lots of injuries, as Oneil Cruz ($5,200), Spencer Horwitz ($4,000), and Konnor Griffin ($3,200), the former of whom both have OPS marks over .820 and the latter of whom was starting to find his form, are all out. Lowder has bottom-quintile chase, whiff, and strikeout rates, but no team strikes out more frequently than Pittsburgh. Additionally, Lowder has averaged 6.5 more FPTS per game at home, and the Pirates have posted an OPS 76 points worse on the road.
OF Dominic Canzone, Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Dodgers, $3,500
It’s been a miserable season for the Mariners’ offense in general, and even if they were within a value budget, Randy Arozarena ($4,600) and Julio Rodríguez ($4,200) haven’t been good enough to back. Canzone, on the other hand, has had a quietly awesome season, posting a career-best .867 OPS and mashing 18 homers. He’s been particularly hot over his last 10 games, averaging 9.6 FPTS per game in that stretch, and he opened the series on Tuesday with a two-homer (30-FPT) performance. The southpaw followed it up with a decent nine-FPT effort last night.
Canzone could have a favorable matchup against the most inconsistent of Los Angeles’ starters, Roki Sasaki ($7,500). Sasaki is coming off of arguably the best performance of his career, a seven-inning, three-hit, one-run (32.8-FPT) clinic against the New York Mets, but that sort of production isn’t typical from a 4.71 ERA pitcher. Sasaki pairs an eighth-percentile barrel rate with the league’s most homer-friendly park, and Canzone has a 93rd-percentile barrel rate and 98th-percentile average exit velocity. Sasaki likes to throw four-seam fastballs to lefties, and Canzone has a .733 xSLG against righty four-seamers so far this season.
SS Jim Jarvis, Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals, $3,000
Jarvis hasn’t had a particularly impressive rookie season so far, posting just a .250/.292/.397 slash line over his first 22 career games, including just a .610 OPS since the All-Star break, a span in which he’s started every game. But 22 games is a tiny sample size, and it would hardly be a shock to see Jarvis turn it around. Before earning a call-up, he absolutely raked for Triple-A Gwinnett, slashing .313/.406/.461 in 76 games. He’ll figure it out at the MLB level eventually, and to his credit, he doubled last night in a seven-FPT performance.
Jarvis has a friendly matchup tonight against Jake Irvin ($6,600), who posted a 5.23 ERA across 11 starts before getting shut down with a shoulder injury and led all of baseball in both earned runs and homers allowed in 2025. Additionally, though he dominated all of his rehab starts, he didn’t throw more than 58 pitches in any of them, so he probably isn’t in line for a full starter’s load, allowing Jarvis to face Washington’s bullpen, which ranks just 28th in ERA. Irvin struggles in basically every area that Jarvis does, and Jarvis’ strengths should mitigate Irvin’s.
