This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
Opening Day is still over a week away, but the 2024 MLB regular season nonetheless begins Wednesday morning at 6 p.m. ET. It's a confusing situation, but the Seoul Series gives us the opportunity to see regular season baseball one week early and also to play regular season DFS one week early, so I'm not complaining.
This article features my favorite plays for the first FanDuel slate of the year, a single-game contest. In FanDuel's single-game contest, you pick on MVP, one Star and three utility players. All five players can play any offensive position; you do not select a pitcher. MVPs see their points doubled, while Stars see their points multiplied by 1.5, though both MVPs and Stars cost the same as utility players.
MVP/Star Targets
Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers ($9,500): Most lineups will probably have two of the three big Dodgers bats (Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman) in the MVP and Star spots. That could encourage you to go with a Padres-based build for differentiation or to use a lesser Dodger in one of the premium positions, but it may be best to play it conventional at the top and try to hit on the correct cheap options. Ohtani should be fired up for the closest thing he'll ever get to a home MLB game, and we saw during the World Baseball Classic that he's capable of performing under pressure, so the extra attention he's receiving this week is unlikely to faze him.
Freddie Freeman, Dodgers ($8,000): It's hard to leave any of the Dodgers' big three out, but if I'm stuck including just two of them, I might as well pick the two left-handed bats against righty Yu Darvish. I wouldn't project Freeman for much less than Ohtani or Betts, yet he's $1,500 cheaper than the former and $1,000 cheaper than the latter. That extra $1,000 can help you squeeze in a third hitter you're at least somewhat excited about (perhaps Max Muncy or Manny Machado at $7,500 apiece) rather than forcing you to round out your lineup with three bottom of the order types.
Bargain Bats
Jackson Merrill, Padres ($5,000): 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 ($5,000): 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, and Heyward is the most likely of the cheap Dodgers hitters to do real damage before leaving the game.
