MLB DFS Picks Today 9/23/26: DraftKings Main Slate Pitchers, Stacks, One-Offs & Values

Wednesday’s DraftKings MLB main slate gives us 10 games beginning at 7:05 PM ET. The slate has expensive pitching, Coors Field, several strong offenses in favorable spots and enough cheap bats to build in very different directions.

Our first decision is whether to pay all the way up for Chris Sale or Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Our second is how much of the lineup we want tied to Arizona at Coors. We like the Diamondbacks, but this slate has enough alternatives that we do not want every tournament build to look the same.

CTS Slate Board

Top pitcher: Chris Sale, $11,000
Favorite SP2: George Kirby, $8,300
Favorite value pitcher: Seth Lugo, $6,500
Favorite stack: Arizona Diamondbacks
Favorite non-Coors stack: Los Angeles Dodgers
Favorite value stack: Atlanta Braves
Favorite one-off: Bobby Witt Jr., $6,100
Favorite value bat: Ha-Seong Kim, $2,000 if he starts

Pitchers

Chris Sale, Braves, $11,000

Sale is the pitcher we want most when salary allows it. Cincinnati’s current roster has struggled badly in its history against him, and Sale brings the strikeout ceiling we want from an $11K arm. The tradeoff is obvious: paying for Sale makes a full Arizona stack much harder. That is not a reason to fade him. It is a reason to be intentional with the rest of the lineup.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers, $10,500

Yamamoto is the other premium arm we are comfortable building around. San Diego is not a matchup we need to attack blindly, but Yamamoto has the ability to create his own ceiling through strikeouts and run prevention. He works particularly well in lineups that fade the expensive Coors bats.

Gerrit Cole, Yankees, $9,000

Cole gives us a meaningful discount from the top tier. Tampa Bay has not done much damage against him historically, and $9K is a useful price if we want to spend more aggressively on hitters. He does not need to match Sale’s raw projection to be the better roster construction.

Nolan McLean, Mets, $9,200

McLean is our tournament alternative in the mid-upper tier. Texas is not a spot we need to force, but McLean gives us strikeout upside at a salary that keeps more paths open than Sale or Yamamoto.

George Kirby, Mariners, $8,300

Kirby is our favorite SP2 price point. Houston can make this uncomfortable, but the game environment is much less attractive for offense than Coors, Los Angeles or some of the middle-tier hitting spots. At $8,300, Kirby lets us pair a real ceiling arm with a premium stack without immediately hunting for multiple minimum-priced hitters.

Value Pitcher: Seth Lugo, Royals, $6,500

Lugo is the salary-release arm we want in the pool. The White Sox matchup gives him a realistic path to returning value without needing an elite strikeout performance, and $6,500 changes the entire construction of the lineup. Pairing Lugo with Sale leaves $32,500 for eight hitters, while Lugo with Kirby leaves $35,200. That is enough extra salary to move from the cheaper Arizona pieces into more of Marte, Carroll and the top of another stack.

This is a value play, not a claim that Lugo carries the same raw ceiling as Sale, Yamamoto or Kirby. We want him most in GPP builds where the $2,000 to $4,500 saved at SP2 materially improves the hitters. If the bats created by those savings can outscore the bats available with two expensive pitchers, Lugo does his job.

Favorite stacks

1. Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado

Arizona is the first offense we want to build around. Coors carries the highest total on the main slate, and the Diamondbacks draw Mason Adams. The challenge is pricing, which should also create several different ways to build the stack.

Ketel Marte $5,300 and Corbin Carroll $5,400 are the premium pieces. Gabriel Moreno $4,900 gives us catcher exposure, while Geraldo Perdomo $4,500 and Nolan Arenado $4,200 keep the middle of the stack manageable.

The salary relief comes from Tim Tawa $3,700, Jordan Lawlar $3,400 and Pavin Smith $3,000 if they are in the final lineup. That is important because Arizona does not have to mean Marte-Carroll plus three more expensive hitters. A 5-man stack can still leave room for strong pitching if we use the bottom half intelligently.

2. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Robbie Ray

The Dodgers are our favorite pivot away from Coors. Robbie Ray still misses bats, but the matchup also gives Los Angeles plenty of power paths, especially through its right-handed bats.

Mookie Betts $5,200, Andy Pages $4,500 and Teoscar Hernandez $4,800 are our favorite starting points. Will Smith $4,200 is useful at catcher, while Freddie Freeman $5,100 and Kyle Tucker $4,600 can stay in left-on-left tournament stacks because their overall ceilings are too high to dismiss solely on handedness.

Alex Call $2,500 becomes especially useful if he lands in the starting lineup. He can make a Dodgers stack dramatically easier to pair with Sale.

3. Chicago Cubs vs. Ryan Gusto

Chicago is a strong secondary stack, although the wind blowing in at Wrigley lowers our enthusiasm compared with a neutral-weather game. Ryan Gusto has allowed enough damage to keep the Cubs viable, but this is a spot where we prefer concentrated 3- and 4-man combinations rather than automatically forcing five hitters.

Seiya Suzuki $5,400, Michael Busch $4,600 and Ian Happ $4,200 are our favorite combination. Nico Hoerner $3,900, Carson Kelly $3,500 and Michael Conforto $3,400 give the stack useful salary relief.

4. Atlanta Braves vs. Andrew Abbott

Atlanta is our favorite value-oriented stack. Andrew Abbott is capable of pitching well, so this is not simply a matchup attack. The appeal is how much right-handed power we can access without paying Coors prices.

Ronald Acuna Jr. $5,700 is the ceiling piece if active and starting. Drake Baldwin $4,700 and Matt Olson $5,200 remain viable despite the left-on-left matchup, while Ozzie Albies $3,700, Austin Riley $3,400, Sean Murphy $2,700 and Ha-Seong Kim $2,000 can make the full stack surprisingly affordable.

Best one-off hitters

Bobby Witt Jr., $6,100: The salary is steep, but Witt is exactly the type of player we are willing to use outside a full Kansas City stack. He can create a tournament score with power and speed and does not require the rest of the Royals to succeed with him.

Cal Raleigh, $5,100: Catcher power is valuable when we are not using Moreno, Smith or another catcher inside a stack. Raleigh gives us legitimate multi-homer upside in a one-off slot.

Julio Rodriguez, $4,300: The price is much more appealing than the ceiling suggests. He works as a one-off or as part of a small Seattle mini-stack.

Michael Harris II, $4,200: Harris is an easy way to get exposure to Atlanta without committing to a five-man stack. His combination of power and speed fits tournament builds well.

Salvador Perez, $3,200: Perez gives us affordable home-run upside at catcher and can solve the position without forcing us into the most expensive stacks.

Value bats

Ha-Seong Kim, $2,000: If he starts, this is the first salary-saving bat we want to consider. The price gives us enormous flexibility for Sale plus an expensive stack.

Alex Call, $2,500: A starting assignment inside the Dodgers lineup would make Call one of the slate’s most useful punt bats. He is especially valuable in LAD stacks because the savings stay correlated with the rest of the lineup.

Kyle Isbel, $2,500: Isbel is a cheap outfield option when we need salary relief without using a completely disconnected punt.

Sean Murphy, $2,700: Cheap catcher exposure to Atlanta gives Murphy both positional utility and stack correlation.

Pavin Smith, $3,000: Smith is one of the easiest ways to reduce the average salary of an Arizona stack if he is in the final lineup.

Michael Massey, $3,100: Massey is another useful Kansas City salary saver who can be paired with Witt or used when the final roster needs inexpensive second-base eligibility.

GPP stack ideas

Arizona 5-man + expensive pitching: Do not assume a Diamondbacks stack requires every premium bat. Using one or two of Tawa, Lawlar or Smith can preserve Sale or Yamamoto.

Dodgers right-handed core: Betts + Pages + Teoscar + Smith gives us a concentrated way to attack Ray without needing to use every expensive Dodgers hitter.

Atlanta salary bridge: Riley + Albies + Murphy/Kim can be combined with one or two premium Braves. This is one of our favorite ways to create a lineup that can still afford an elite one-off elsewhere.

Seattle mini-stack: Raleigh + Rodriguez + Josh Naylor $3,600 is a lower-cost three-man combination for builds that spend heavily elsewhere.

Lineup construction

The slate gives us four constructions we like. The first is Sale plus Kirby with a mixed-price Arizona stack. The second is a cheaper Cole/Kirby or McLean/Kirby pairing that lets us use more of the top of the Diamondbacks order. The third uses Seth Lugo at $6,500 as the salary-release SP2, opening a much more aggressive combination of premium Arizona bats and expensive one-offs. The fourth fades Coors as a full stack and spends on Dodgers or Cubs while using one Arizona hitter as a one-off.

For tournaments, we do not want to choose a cheap hitter only because he fits the salary cap. The value bat should either improve the stack, hold a strong lineup position, or create enough savings to materially upgrade another roster spot.

CTS Core

Chris Sale, $11,000
George Kirby, $8,300
Value SP: Seth Lugo, $6,500
Ketel Marte, $5,300
Corbin Carroll, $5,400
Ha-Seong Kim, $2,000 if starting

Arizona is our favorite offense, but the slate is more interesting than simply playing Coors. Sale owns the pitching ceiling we want, Kirby is the salary point that makes premium bats easier to reach, and the Dodgers give us the strongest full-stack pivot if Arizona becomes the obvious construction.