MLB DFS Picks & Stacks for Tuesday (9/29/26)
Playoff baseball arrives on Tuesday, and the days of MLB DFS are slowly fading away. There is still time to cash in at DraftKings, however, as we have a four-game Wild Card slate to work with, and it locks with the Phillies at Braves opener at 2:00 PM ET.
It’s a fun one. We have two legit aces toeing the rubber, Chris Sale and Cam Schlittler, plus some rock-solid secondary options. That high-level pitching is going to limit offensive upside and make it less necessary to force full five-man stacks, but you’ll still want to know which offenses grade out best and where you can find some leverage. Here are the best MLB DFS picks and stacks for 9/29.
MLB DFS Overview for Tuesday
MLB DFS changes in the playoffs. Games are a lot more tense and tend to be lower scoring. That doesn’t mean elite offenses can’t be used or that aces are infallible, but it does typically mean low run totals, and offenses with flaws are even less likely to come out on the right side of variance.
You can use that reality to your advantage, but full stacking is less necessary, and doing it adds risk even when you’re chasing perceived leverage. Every game today is Game 1 of a best-of-three Wild Card Series, played at the higher seed’s park.
Low Totals Across the Board
It’s awfully difficult to envision a top-scoring lineup that doesn’t build around two of the top arms. Two games are bullpen games, for one, and the aces in question are guys we’d fear fading even on a regular-season slate. White Sox at Astros is the only game with a total above 7.0, and it’s a bullpen game on both sides.
| Game | First Pitch (ET) | Game Total | Moneyline |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHI at ATL | 2:00 PM | 6.5 | ATL -205 / PHI +168 |
| CWS at HOU | 5:00 PM | 8.0 | HOU -126 / CWS +105 |
| BOS at NYY | 8:00 PM | 6.5 | NYY -145 / BOS +120 |
| CHC at SD | 10:00 PM | 7.0 | SD -130 / CHC +108 |
Game totals and moneylines are DraftKings’ posted lines, checked on September 29, 2026. No book had posted team totals at press time, so the run totals in the stacks section below are my own projections, not market numbers. Our over/under betting guide explains how game totals are set.
Weather and Parks
There’s no postponement risk anywhere. Atlanta and San Diego are warm with little wind, Yankee Stadium is in the high 60s and calm, and the roof at Daikin Park in Houston is expected to be closed, which takes the heat and wind out of that game.
| Venue | First Pitch (ET) | Forecast | Park Runs / HR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Truist Park (PHI at ATL) | 2:00 PM | 81F, wind 3 mph | 100 / 100 |
| Daikin Park (CWS at HOU) | 5:00 PM | Roof expected closed | 100 / 113 |
| Yankee Stadium (BOS at NYY) | 8:00 PM | 67F, calm | 102 / 118 |
| Petco Park (CHC at SD) | 10:00 PM | 73F, wind 5 mph | 94 / 105 |
The park numbers are MLB’s own Statcast park factors from Baseball Savant on a 2024 to 2026 rolling window, where 100 is league average. Yankee Stadium is the best home run park on the board, while Petco Park is the one real pitcher’s park.
Every Listed Arm, Sorted by Salary
Two of these games start with an opener. The Phillies are opening with Jesus Luzardo ahead of Andrew Painter, and both Chicago and Houston are running bullpen games, with Hagen Smith opening for the White Sox and AJ Blubaugh opening for the Astros.
| Pitcher | Salary | 2026 ERA | K Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Sale (ATL vs. PHI) | $10,000 | 2.16 | 30.9% |
| Cam Schlittler (NYY vs. BOS) | $9,600 | 1.95 | 31.4% |
| Payton Tolle (BOS at NYY) | $8,800 | 3.03 | 28.4% |
| Jesus Luzardo, opener (PHI at ATL) | $7,700 | 2.86 | 30.3% |
| Michael King (SD vs. CHC) | $7,500 | 3.21 | 21.0% |
| Matthew Boyd (CHC at SD) | $7,000 | 3.91 | 18.5% |
| Tatsuya Imai, likely bulk (HOU vs. CWS) | $6,200 | 4.93 | 28.7% |
| Andrew Painter, likely bulk (PHI at ATL) | $5,700 | 5.40 | 20.8% |
| Hagen Smith, opener (CWS at HOU) | $4,000 | 1.29 | 37.3% |
| AJ Blubaugh, opener (HOU vs. CWS) | Not listed | 3.66 | 23.4% |
Best MLB DFS Pitchers for 9/29
Chris Sale is the top spend, Cam Schlittler is the best pivot, Matthew Boyd is the value play and Michael King is the tournament arm. Hats off to DraftKings, which has kept the pitching prices in check. That makes it a lot easier to play the top two arms together, and that is precisely what I prefer doing. If you’re forced to pick just one, though, Sale is the guy.
Chris Sale ($10,000): The Top Arm on the Board
Sale has been one of the best pitchers in baseball all year, and he enters Tuesday’s slate with the top projection on my sheet. He’ll be the most popular arm, and the Phillies do have a lot of power, but his 30.9 percent strikeout rate is sublime. He also doesn’t give up a ton of power or walks, so short of a random Kyle Schwarber home run, there’s not much optimism on the Philadelphia side.
Sale has been lights out at home (a 1.66 ERA at Truist Park), and he has predictably owned the Phillies this year, going 3-0 with 29 strikeouts in four starts against them. Our Phillies vs. Braves pick breaks down the betting side of this matchup.
Cam Schlittler ($9,600): The Pivot Who Knows Boston
The park is worse for Schlittler in terms of power, but it’s otherwise a solid spot. He knows Boston quite well (a 0.74 ERA with 27 strikeouts against the Red Sox this year), and he has been about as nasty as Sale in terms of strikeouts at 31.4 percent. He gives up a bit more pop and the Red Sox have some heavy hitters, but he should be able to navigate a lineup that strikes out almost 23 percent of the time against right-handed pitching.
Matthew Boyd ($7,000): Value in a Pitcher’s Park
Boyd is cheap, so if you want to get to some specific bats and fade one of these aces, he may be the best bet. The Padres don’t whiff much and fare decently against southpaws, but Petco Park is the best pitching environment on the slate (94 on Savant’s runs index). San Diego does have the splits edge and could give him trouble from the right side, but value is hard to come by on a four-game slate.
Michael King ($7,500): A Tournament Arm in the Same Park
King is another source of value across from Boyd in that same ballpark. I don’t love it, of course, as the Cubs are a dangerous offense. Chicago strikes out only 21 percent of the time against righties and offers some serious pop (a .182 ISO), and King’s strikeout upside (21.0 percent) just isn’t close to the top options. That makes him a GPP play, not a core arm.
Don’t Forget Payton Tolle
I shouldn’t leave without mentioning Payton Tolle ($8,800), who is honestly a fantastic tier down from Sale and Schlittler. My guess is he’s simply not very necessary, but he’s still a really good play. The Yankees strike out a bit against lefties, and they will be without Aaron Judge, who was left off the Wild Card roster with a right calf strain.
Top MLB DFS Hitters for Tuesday
Yordan Alvarez is the top spend, Kyle Teel is the value play and Kyle Schwarber is the tournament bat. On a slate this light on offense, these are the three bats I’d most want to get to.
Yordan Alvarez ($6,000): The Most Compelling Pay-Up
Yordan is without a doubt the most compelling pay-up among the hitters. Pete Crow-Armstrong also looks good, but Alvarez is cheaper and in a better spot. He comes in with the top hitting projection on my sheet, and he doesn’t have to go through Sale or Schlittler to get there. The White Sox are opening with Hagen Smith in a bullpen game, so Yordan should see several different arms.
Kyle Teel ($3,300): Cheap Exposure to a Sneaky Stack
Teel is solid value for what looks to be a sneaky White Sox stack. Houston is favored and Teel isn’t exactly reliable, but Chicago is facing a bullpen game that starts with AJ Blubaugh, with Tatsuya Imai (4.93 ERA) listed as the likely bulk arm. The White Sox’s power and lack of ownership make them pretty appealing, and Teel is cheap exposure to that offense.
Kyle Schwarber ($5,200): The Leverage One-Off
Schwarber is always a fun one-off, but he’s even more interesting since people will want to play Sale and, by default, shy away from the Phillies. It’s likely he just whiffs a bunch and does very little in this spot, but he’s way cheaper than usual and won’t be very popular, both of which make him attractive in tournaments. Just don’t pair him with Sale.
Tuesday’s Best MLB DFS Stacks
Houston, Atlanta and the White Sox are my core stacks, in that order. The Cubs and Yankees are the leverage plays. It’s a gross slate for hitting, that’s for sure, so I think we need to mix mini-stacks and one-offs against the aces, prioritize the offenses in the best spots and go after the weaker bullpens.
The run totals on the board below are my own projections. With just one offense on the entire slate projecting north of 4.0 runs, this is a slate to emphasize top-shelf pitching. For the leverage pieces, I’ve left the projection off rather than guess at one.
| Stack | Opposing Arm | Bullpen Behind Him |
|---|---|---|
| Astros | Hagen Smith (LHP, opener) | White Sox: 3.70 ERA (5th) |
| Braves | Jesus Luzardo (LHP, opener), then Andrew Painter | Phillies: 4.43 ERA (16th) |
| White Sox | AJ Blubaugh (opener), then Tatsuya Imai | Astros: 4.08 ERA (12th) |
| Cubs | Michael King (RHP) | Padres: 3.53 ERA |
| Yankees | Payton Tolle (LHP) | Red Sox: 3.00 ERA (1st) |
Bullpen ERAs are 2026 regular-season figures; ranks are approximate.
Houston Astros (4.1): The Top Projection, With Caveats
Right now, Houston grades out as the best offense to stack. I don’t know how trustworthy the Astros are in a bullpen game against a White Sox pen that ranks among the best in baseball (a 3.70 ERA), but they project the best on my sheet. I’m more inclined to pay for Yordan than to stack Houston blindly, though.
Atlanta Braves (3.8): Wait Out the Opener
The Braves and the White Sox are next up, and they’re tough to separate. Atlanta has a tough matchup to start things off with opener Jesus Luzardo (a 30.3 percent strikeout rate), but the Phillies have one of the more attackable bullpens, and Andrew Painter (5.40 ERA) is expected to follow him. We can’t know for sure who will be used behind Luzardo, but in general Atlanta looks like a decent stack once he exits.
Chicago White Sox (3.8): My Favorite Stack of the Slate
I think the White Sox might be my favorite stack of the slate. Nobody looks that great, they won’t necessarily be chalky, and they have the most fun narrative backing them as the AL’s No. 6 seed. They face AJ Blubaugh to start, so the worry is that Houston’s bullpen could limit them after that.
Even so, the White Sox are playing with house money and have loads of power. They sport a .183 collective ISO and know how to get on base. I think Blubaugh could be looking at some trouble early, and Chicago could look to send a message in this one. If you’re hunting low-owned MLB DFS stacks on a small board, this is where I’d start.
Leverage Stacks: Cubs and Yankees
Chicago Cubs. The Cubs feel like a team on a mission, and Michael King can be had. Petco Park suppresses runs, but Chicago’s low strikeout rate against righties and its power make this a spot the field may underrate.
New York Yankees. New York needs to make up for the absence of Judge, but Yankee Stadium is the best home run park on the slate, and at least the Yankees know Tolle. With Schlittler drawing plenty of ownership on the other side, Yankees bats offer a different way to get exposure to this game.
Building Your MLB DFS Lineups on 9/29
Step one on this slate is to pay up for pitching. I see little reason not to play Sale, and if you like a cheaper stack that also gets you to Schlittler, I’d do it. Sale and Schlittler together cost $19,600, which leaves $30,400 (a workable $3,800 per bat) for your eight hitters.
I personally like Boyd as value, so Sale and Boyd builds get me pretty much whatever I want. I don’t have a ton of interest in aggressively leveraging the Sale ownership with Phillies stacks, but both Philadelphia and Boston are absolutely in play in large-field GPPs. Our guide to DFS ownership projections covers how to read that leverage.
My favorite tournament stack is the White Sox, and if they hit, that’s all the leverage I really need. The offense on the other side of that game is the one the field will be on the most, so we instantly get different from the field.
Playoff baseball is like pulling teeth, so this slate is more about pitching and then picking your spots offensively. Managers are liable to pull players for matchup purposes, so roll with the punches and don’t force full five-man stacks if they don’t fit naturally.
- Core build: Sale with Schlittler or Boyd, plus an Astros or Braves mini-stack
- Get different: Sale and Boyd with a White Sox stack built around Teel
- Leverage: a Phillies one-off like Schwarber, or Cubs and Yankees bats, in lineups without Sale or Schlittler
- Before lock: confirm the posted lineups and watch how the openers are used in the Phillies and Astros games
Build the Core in the Optimizer
Want to build around these plays? The optimizer below opens with Tuesday’s DraftKings pool loaded and my core locked in: Sale and Schlittler on the mound, Yordan from Houston and Teel from the White Sox.
The tool fills the open spots only with players on an MLB active roster and skips arms who aren’t scheduled to pitch, but lineups hadn’t posted when this went up. Swap out any auto-filled bat who isn’t in his team’s posted lineup before you enter. Auto-fill also won’t pair a pitcher with the hitters he faces, so it leaves Phillies and Red Sox bats out. If you want Schwarber, build a lineup without Sale.
Loading the slate...
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Frequently Asked Questions
Five questions about Tuesday’s four-game Wild Card slate, from Sale versus Schlittler to the openers.
Should I Play Chris Sale or Cam Schlittler on Tuesday’s MLB DFS Slate?
Kevin prefers playing both, since DraftKings priced them at 10,000 and 9,600 dollars. If you only play one, Sale is the pick: he has a 30.9 percent strikeout rate, a 1.66 ERA at home and a 3-0 record with 29 strikeouts against the Phillies this year. Schlittler is the pivot, with a 0.74 ERA and 27 strikeouts against Boston this season.
What does GPP mean in daily fantasy?
GPP stands for Guaranteed Prize Pool, the large-field tournaments where a small share of lineups win most of the money. GPP plays are the higher-variance, lower-owned picks, like Michael King or a Kyle Schwarber one-off today, that help you separate from the field, as opposed to the safer plays you lean on in cash games.
Why Are the White Sox Kevin’s Favorite Stack?
Chicago faces a Houston bullpen game that opens with AJ Blubaugh, with Tatsuya Imai (4.93 ERA) the likely bulk arm. The White Sox carry a .183 team ISO, likely won’t be popular, and sit opposite the Astros, the offense the field will play most, so a White Sox stack gets you different from the field right away.
Which MLB Wild Card Games Use an Opener on Tuesday?
Two of the four games start with an opener. The Phillies open with Jesus Luzardo at Atlanta, with Andrew Painter expected to follow, and White Sox at Astros is a bullpen game on both sides, with Hagen Smith opening for Chicago and AJ Blubaugh opening for Houston.
What Time Does Tuesday’s DraftKings MLB Slate Lock?
The slate locks at 2:00 PM ET with Phillies at Braves. The other games follow at 5:00 PM (White Sox at Astros), 8:00 PM (Red Sox at Yankees) and 10:00 PM (Cubs at Padres). Every game is Game 1 of a best-of-three Wild Card Series.
