This article is part of our DraftKings MLB series.
No, you haven't come unstuck in time. The first game of the 2024 MLB regular season really does arrive more than a week before Opening Day, with the Dodgers and Padres dueling it out in Seoul, South Korea. The Game begins at 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday morning, so you'll probably want to get your DFS lineups in Tuesday night.
This article features my favorite plays for the first DraftKings slate of the year, a single-game showdown contest. DraftKings' showdown contests are simple. You pick one captain, whose salary and fantasy points are both multiplied by 1.5. You then fill out the roster with five utility players, who can be any position — including pitcher.
Captain
Tyler Glasnow, Dodgers ($17,400 as captain): It's nearly always correct to pick the pitcher from the team you think is going to win as your captain for single-game DFS contests, as pitchers produce roughly twice as much value per game as even the best hitters. Using last year's points per game, Glasnow costs $809 per point, while Mookie Betts costs $1,387 per point. If you're looking to differentiate yourself from the crowd, which surely will be full of Dodgers-centric lineups which are typically led by Glasnow, you could pivot to one of the top hitters, though the better contrarian play would probably be to build a Padres-based lineup with Yu Darvish as its leader. In case you're worried that Glasnow won't last deep enough into the game to earn a win, note that he threw 5.1 innings in his final spring tuneup. He struck out eight while walking one and allowing zero hits in that outing, so he sure looks ready to go.
Top Targets
Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers ($9,400): If you go with Glasnow as your captain, you're only going to be able to fit in one of the Dodgers' big three (Ohtani, Betts and Freddie Freeman), unless you're comfortable using a minimum-priced bench player or two to squeeze a second one in. If you're going with just one big Dodgers bat, Ohtani would be my choice, though the margins are slim. While the Seoul Series isn't in his native country of Japan, it's as close to it as he's ever going to get in an MLB game, so this contest means more to him than it does to his teammates. We haven't seen Ohtani get to play in many high-pressure situations during his MLB career thus far, as he's yet to appear in a playoff game, but his performance in last year's World Baseball Classic leaves little reason to doubt he'll step up to the occasion.
Yu Darvish, Padres ($10,600): It may be counterintuitive, but the RotoWire MLB Optimizer suggests that the best plan for Wednesday's slate is to roster both pitchers, with Glasnow as captain and Darvish as your only expensive utility player. If you go that route, you won't be fitting in any top bats but will be relying on a pitcher's duel instead. (For what it's worth, Wednesday's venue, Gocheok Sky Dome, is neither hitter-friendly nor pitcher-friendly.) Darvish faces a tougher task than Glasnow, so it's hard to make the case for him as your captain unless you're simply looking for differentiation, but everything he's done so far this spring suggests he should be able to justify his spot in your lineup. He reached four innings in his final tune-up, putting five innings (and therefore a shot at a win) in play for Wednesday's season opener, and his 10:1 K:BB and 2.89 ERA in 9.1 Cactus League innings suggest he's in for a strong start to the year.
Bargain Bats
Jackson Merrill, Padres ($5,600): Merrill has yet to play above Double-A, and his merely above-average 104 wRC+ in 46 games there last season suggests the 20-year-old may need more development time in the minors. The Padres disagree, however, or at least they think he's a better option than the uninspiring group of alternatives they brought to camp. In any case, they moved him from middle infield to center field this spring and were happy enough with the results to name him the team's Opening Day center fielder. Merrill doesn't yet have big power, homering a modest 15 times last season, but he has an excellent hit tool, striking out 12.1 percent of the time in the minors last year and 7.5 percent of the time this spring. That gives him the chance to justify his cheap price tag even in a tough matchup against Glasnow.
Jason Heyward, Dodgers ($5,400): Heyward had a minor renaissance in his age-33 season last year (his first with the Dodgers), hitting .269/.340/.473 after struggling to a .211/.280/.326. The Dodgers deployed him almost exclusively against right-handers, with just seven percent of his plate appearances coming against southpaws. That does put Heyward at some risk to be removed for a pinch hitter late in the game, and "late" could come early in this one with starters more likely to throw four or five innings than seven or eight. Still, you're going to have to include some cheap hitters to make your lineup work if you're using Glasnow as your captain, and Heyward is the most likely of the cheap Dodgers hitters to do real damage before leaving the game.
