Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks Today for Saturday 9/26

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84)

Created Sep 25, 2026

Last Updated 2026-09-26 14:00:24 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 September 26, 2026.

Welcome to the final feature MLB article for the 2026 season! It’s crazy to think how quickly a season can go by, even when teams are playing 162 games. I hope you have enjoyed this MLB DFS season!

With the sites offering very small prize pools for the early slates and a lot of uncertainty on lineups and pitchers today, we are going to focus the article on the 7-game main slate at night. This was originally an 8-game slate, but MLB has pushed the final CHC/BOS game to Sunday in Tampa Bay due to the heavy rain in the Northeast today. We will also have to monitor the weather in Philadelphia for the TBR/PHI game, but it looks like they should be able to get that one in.

Before I dig into the analysis today, let’s take a quick look at an overview of what’s at stake for these night games:

Rockies at White Sox – The White Sox have clinched a playoff spot, but they are still fighting with the Guardians for the AL Central title and a Wild Card series at home. There should still be motivation for them. The Rockies have long been eliminated.

Guardians at Royals – The Guardians have clinched a playoff spot, but they are still fighting with the White Sox for the AL Central title and a Wild Card series at home. There should still be motivation for them. The Royals have long been eliminated.

Cardinals at Brewers – The Brewers have clinched the #1 seed in the entire NL playoff bracket. The Cardinals have been eliminated. This game is meaningless.

Rays at Phillies – The Rays have clinched the #1 seed in the entire AL playoff bracket. The Phillies are still fighting for their Wild Card lives and somehow haven’t clinched yet. They will need to play to win with the hard-charging Diamondbacks making a late push.

Diamondbacks at Padres – The Padres are still fighting for their Wild Card seeding and could still potentially get as high as the #4 seed for a home series. I expect the Padres to play to win. The Diamondbacks have been red hot this week and still have life with the aforementioned Phillies fading in the NL Wild Card race.

Astros at Athletics – The Astros are in a tussle with the Rangers for the AL West title, and that is the only AL playoff participant that has not been decided yet. Everyone else is just fighting for seed spots. The Astros and Rangers are tied heading into today’s games, so this is obviously a key contest for them. The Athletics have been eliminated.

Angels at Mariners – Both teams have been eliminated, and this game is meaningless.

With those notes in mind, let’s dive into the final article of the season!

Saturday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel

A JUMBLED PITCHING MESS

I’m not even going to attempt to make tiers out of the pitchers today. As of the time I am writing this first draft, 5 of the 14 teams still have “TBA” listed as their starting pitchers tonight, and the most expensive pitcher on the DK slate is Michael Wacha. Yeah, that’s life with a bunch of meaningless games and just 2 days left in the regular season. It is all going to be about avoiding land mines at pitcher this evening.

I have no incentive to sugar coat this, so I’ll lay it out directly: This is the least exciting slate I have written up all season. It’s not particularly close. There are 2 days left in the season, prize pools are much lower than usual, teams are pulling nonsense with lineups and pitch counts, and this feels like an NBA slate where we aren’t going to know what might be optimal until 30 minutes before lock. On that note, I’ll be on GrindersLive this evening before the games start, and this might be a good night to tune in for the most up-to-date thoughts on lineup construction.

Rant aside, here we go…

• Michael Wacha vs. Guardians
• Tanner Bibee at Royals
• Griffin Jax at Phillies
• Quinn Mathews at Brewers
• Kade Anderson vs. Angels
• Hayden Wesneski at Athletics
• Ryan Johnson at Mariners
• Davis Martin vs. Rockies
• Jose Urquidy (not 100% confirmed) vs. Rays

As usual, we’ll begin the foray into these pitchers with a look at their 2026 stats.

Wacha – 3.33 ERA, 4.36 xFIP, 19.6% K, 6.7% BB
Bibee – 4.35 ERA, 4.50 xFIP, 18.8% K, 7.2% BB
Jax – 3.62 ERA, 3.40 xFIP, 25.6% K, 7.8% BB
Mathews – 3.65 ERA, 4.29 xFIP, 20.5% K, 9.5% BB (44 innings)
Anderson – 4.18 ERA, 3.78 xFIP, 21.4% K, 6.1% BB (32 innings)
Wesneski – 3.50 ERA, 4.39 xFIP, 18.7% K, 8.7% BB
Johnson – 4.93 ERA, 5.11 xFIP, 18.5% K, 9.5% BB
Martin – 3.84 ERA, 4.13 xFIP, 19.8% K, 7.4% BB
Urquidy – 4.54 ERA, 4.26 xFIP, 18.0% K, 4.7% BB

Well, all righty then. This is one of the first times ever in my near decade of writing this article that I basically don’t know where to start with this. After debating for 15 minutes, I’ve decided to start the discussion with the mighty Griffin Jax. I think he’s clearly the best pitcher of this wild group, with solid metrics across the board and the highest strikeout rate by a wide margin. However, with Tampa Bay locked into the top seed, how long will he go? What will his role be in the playoffs? Is this a final true “tune up” start? They did let Freddy Peralta throw 93 pitches last night. If this is a full start, I do like Jax quite a bit, even in a matchup against a Phillies team that still has plenty to play for. The Phillies are clearly feeling the pressure and have been on a massive slide this week.

Every other pitcher that I have listed here owns a strikeout rate below league average for the season. Six of them have a strikeout rate under 20%. It’s just ugly, and I can’t sit here and give you a definite answer as to who is the best play. It just doesn’t exist.

The “safest” options are probably Michael Wacha and Tanner Bibee, but you also have to pay a bit for that safety on a slate where I really don’t want to spend top dollar for pitchers. Wacha is the better pitcher in my view, but he has the tougher opponent against a motivated Cleveland team that has been hot of late. Bibee has the better matchup, but I have rostered him a grand total of zero times all season, and I don’t really want to start that now.

Perhaps the young guns are the way to go? Kade Anderson and Quinn Mathews have been solid (if unspectacular) in their first tastes of MLB action. Mathews gets a risk/reward matchup against a Brewers team that is weaker against LHP and has nothing to play for. I’ll bump him up my wish list if the Brewers rest some starters tonight. Anderson has the better pedigree but really hasn’t shown the swing-and-miss upside in his brief MLB sample. Still, I’m willing to take a shot on that given his matchup against the high-strikeout Angels. He’s probably my second-favorite option behind Jax as of right now, even if he is capped at around 85-90 pitches.

Hayden Wesneski is a big favorite against a watered-down Athletics lineup in a game Houston needs to win. Jose Urquidy is likely starting in a game the Phillies would like to win. Davis Martin has been bad in the 2nd half but gets to face the Rockies. Ryan Johnson has a fine matchup but has largely terrible numbers. The fact is that none of these pitchers bring big DFS ceilings into play. I don’t love Wesneski in a hitter-friendly park, and I think Martin is my favorite option out of this bunch. While he hasn’t thrown a ton of pitches per outing, he does have an ERA under 1.00 since his return from the IL early this month.

SATURDAY PITCHING SUMMARY

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