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MLB DFS Picks: Top Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for Tuesday 9/8/26

MLB DFS Picks: Top Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for Tuesday 9/8/26

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By: Garion Thorne

This is the final MLB DFS slate before the start of the NFL season. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to say goodbye to the fair-weather baseball fans. To the real ones, this is just another Tuesday.

Let’s dive into this 10-game featured slate on DraftKings and find some values.

Top MLB DFS Value Picks

  • Cardinals SP Quinn Matthews ($7,000) vs. Giants
  • Blue Jays OF Nathan Lukes ($3,000) vs. Athletics
  • Dodgers 2B Miguel Rojas ($2,700) vs. Reds

Set your DraftKings MLB DFS lineups here: MLB $150K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st]

SP Quinn Matthews, St. Louis Cardinals at San Francisco Giants, $7,000

The main thing to know heading into Matthews’ sixth-career start is that he’s been pretty good in his brief taste of MLB action. The left-handed rookie has maintained a 3.33 xERA and a 3.26 FIP across 24.2 innings. It’s also a span where Matthews has racked up 24 strikeouts and only conceded a 1.3% opponent barrel rate. All very positive signs.

Yes, the Giants have been surprisingly potent when it comes to scoring runs the past few weeks, but this is a roster that owns an 88 wRC+ against lefty pitching for 2026 as a whole. It makes sense that San Francisco would struggle within the split, too. Rafael Devers, Jung Hoo Lee and Bryce Eldridge are all LHBs. So is Drew Gilbert, who put together a very nice month of August as the Giants’ primary leadoff man. Matthews’ handedness should be a huge advantage on Tuesday.

OF Nathan Lukes, Toronto Blue Jays at Athletics, $3,000

Lukes has been one of the main reasons that the Jays’ lineup has turned it’s season around in recent weeks, slashing an eye-popping .339/.371/.576 with four home runs and a 167 wRC+ in his last 16 games. With that red-hot run of success, expect Lukes’ bat to slot in at the two-spot or the five-spot in Toronto’s lineup on Tuesday against Jack Perkins ($5,500).

In his 13 starts in 2026, Perkins sports a nasty 7.67 ERA with a 5.57 FIP. To make matters worse — or better depending on your rooting interest — the RHP has also given up 1.96 opponent home runs per nine this season when toeing the rubber at the hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park.

2B Miguel Rojas, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Cincinnati Reds, $2,700

Rojas isn’t the first name that comes to mind when you think about rostering Dodgers’ bats, but goodness does his bargain basement salary make lineup construction a little easier. He’s hit left-handed pitching really well throughout 2026, too. In his 144 plate appearances within the split, Rojas is slashing .298/.340/.458 with a 118 wRC+.

Tonight’s southpaw? Nick Lodolo ($5,700), who has been struggling a ton in the season’s second-half. The former seventh-overall pick did miss some time due to injury, which certainly didn’t help matters, yet since the All-Star break, Lodolo has conceded a whopping 2.82 opponent home runs per nine, along with a 14.9% opponent barrel rate. I’d expect some crooked numbers for Los Angeles tonight and for Rojas to be in the middle of the action.

All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.