Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks Today for Saturday 5/2

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2026-05-02 16:57:12 Premium Content Part of the product MLB DFS

Long-time grinder Justin Van Zuiden (aka stlcardinals84) is here to cover the bases for the upcoming MLB DFS slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. Whether you are looking for the top pitchers or the best stacks, Justin has you covered with an extensive deep dive into his favorite MLB DFS picks today on May 2, 2026.

Happy Saturday, Grinders! We have the usual Saturday schedule with games spread out all over the place. There are 3 “very early” starts followed by 5 later afternoon games and 6 evening games. I will focus on the 5-game afternoon slate and the evening slate in the article today.

Weather does not look to be a concern, so it should be all systems go for a fun day of baseball. These are some tricky slates, so it will be interesting to see how things shake out.

Let’s dig in and see what the start of the weekend has in store for MLB DFS picks!

Saturday Afternoon Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel

AFTERNOON PITCHING OPTIONS

I was unsure about whether or not I wanted to split teams into tiers for the 5-game afternoon slate, and then I looked at the pitching options. There isn’t a “top” tier for pitchers this afternoon, so that made this decision easy. All the pitchers are secondary options, so they shall all get bunched together. Here’s what we have this afternoon, and as an early warning, it’s not all that exciting.

• Kyle Harrison at Nationals
• Connelly Early vs. Astros
• Max Meyer vs. Phillies
• Spencer Arrighetti at Red Sox
• Foster Griffin vs. Brewers
• Carmen Mlodzinski vs. Reds

As usual, let’s begin with a look at the 2026 data for these starters:

Harrison – 2.28 ERA, 3.14 xFIP, 31.3% K, 8.3% BB
Early – 2.84 ERA, 4.42 xFIP, 21.4% K, 10.7% BB
Meyer – 3.30 ERA, 3.92 xFIP, 25.0% K, 9.1% BB
Arrighetti – 2.00 ERA, 4.56 xFIP, 26.9% K, 11.5% BB (3 starts)
Griffin – 2.67 ERA, 3.96 xFIP, 21.9% K, 7.3% BB
Mlodzinski – 4.13 ERA, 3.50 xFIP, 23.8% K, 8.7% BB

The youth movement is in full force today. Here are the ages of these pitchers: 24, 24, 27, 26, 30, 27. It’s hard to believe that Foster Griffin is the “old man” of this group at age 30. I’m 41, and that makes me feel pretty old. In any case, we’ll see which young gun can have the most success.

The discussion has to start with Kyle Harrison. He has always shown plenty of talent in spurts, and he appears to be taking the next step forward in 2026. He has been a great acquisition for the Brewers, and his sparkling metrics and strikeout rate are supported by a swinging strike rate that sits north of 14%. I always love taking left-handed pitchers against the Nationals, as Harrison will have the L/L splits advantage over their best power bats in James Wood and CJ Abrams. Harrison is a safe option with his overall profile and one of the lower walk rates of these options (even at 8.3%, that is low by the standards we have available today), and he obviously has a big ceiling. This is your obvious SP1 choice.

Connelly Early has a solid 2.84 ERA, but his advanced metrics suggest negative regression. He also seems slightly overpriced, he has the lowest strikeout rate of this group, and I prefer RHP against Houston. He’s an easy pass for me today. The same largely goes for Spencer Arrighetti on the other side of this game. While I have concerns about Boston’s offense and their general direction as a team, Arrighetti has had a 10%+ walk rate in every one of his MLB seasons. His risk tends to outweigh his ceiling, and it’s a tough sell on the road in Fenway Park. These are my least favorite pitchers of the ones I have listed here.

Max Meyer is another pitcher who came up as a well-regarded prospect a few years ago, and he’s largely been solid – if unspectacular – at the MLB level. We know the Phillies have underachieved this year, and the bottom part of their lineup does leave a lot to be desired. The Phillies have the 5th-lowest team walk rate against RHP so far in 2026, and Meyer has shown some sneaky strikeout ability this season. It’s not exciting, but he is absolutely in the mix as a secondary option.

Perhaps the most intriguing name as we move down the list is Foster Griffin. He has transitioned nicely to the MLB environment after a successful couple of seasons pitching for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan. I had questions at first because the Japanese League tends to be lower-scoring on the whole, but Griffin has answered those questions with a 2.67 ERA and 1.07 WHIP through his first half dozen MLB starts. He has also faced the Dodgers, Braves, Phillies, and Brewers already, so it’s not like he’s done all this against cupcake opponents. This will be his second time facing Milwaukee, and he allowed just 1 hit over 5 1/3 innings the first time he faced them. All things considered, he’s my favorite SP2 choice on DK.

Carmen Mlodzinski is the final option I will mention here. I don’t think he’s anything special, but the Reds have been a bit of a mirage in the early going. They have a great record, but they rank just 22nd in the league in team wOBA against RHP and have the 3rd-highest team strikeout rate. You could do worse than Mlodzinski as a cheap dart throw in GPP builds. I wouldn’t bother with this on FD, but he’s on my DK radar for tournament builds.

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