Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks Today for Saturday 9/27

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2025-09-27 13:35:02 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, Cards has you covered with an extensive deep dive into his favorite MLB DFS picks.

Happy Saturday, Grinders! This will be the final headline article of the 2025 season, and I would like to thank you for reading and following along all year. Hopefully the guidance Cheese and I have provided has been able to help you out over the course of the season!

This final Saturday of the regular season brings us a weird day with games spread out all over the place, but prize pools are very small for the early games with this being a huge day of college football. As such, we will focus on the 7-game evening slate only for purposes of this article. If you are interested in content for the early slate, take a glance at our MLB DFS Optimizer where we will have you covered with some expert tags and analysis.

Let’s dive in and see what is in store for the final big MLB slate of the regular season!

(Spoiler Alert: It’s ugly for bats.)

Editor’s Note: Looking for more places to play? Check out our Underdog Fantasy promo code and PrizePicks promo code, two of the best DFS apps available today.

Saturday Night Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings

ACES WITH PITCH COUNT CONCERNS

A key theme of today’s article is going to be “What teams have something to play for?” You will see me reference this quite often throughout the analysis, as teams with secure playoff spots may start to rest players over these last couple of days. I will make sure to emphasize this wherever it is necessary.

With that as a backdrop, here are your top pitchers today:

Tyler Glasnow vs. Mariners
Logan Gilbert vs. Dodgers
Spencer Strider vs. Pirates
Michael King vs. Diamondbacks
Andrew Abbott vs. Brewers

Before I dig into the scenarios, let’s take a look at the 2025 data for today’s aces:

Glasnow – 3.30 ERA, 3.74 xFIP, 29.2% K, 11.9% BB
Gilbert – 3.43 ERA, 2.93 xFIP, 32.6% K, 5.8% BB
Strider – 4.45 ERA, 4.23 xFIP, 24.6% K, 9.8% BB
King – 3.57 ERA, 4.16 xFIP, 24.7% K, 8.1% BB (70 innings)
Abbott – 2.80 ERA, 4.33 xFIP, 21.9% K, 6.5% BB

There is no doubt that Tyler Glasnow and Logan Gilbert have the best numbers of any pitcher on the slate. However, the concern is how deep either will be allowed to pitch tonight. The Dodgers are guaranteed to be the #3 seed in the National League Playoffs, and they will be playing in the first round. They cannot move up or down from this seed. The Mariners have clinched the #2 seed in the American League Playoffs, and they will have a first-round bye. They cannot move up or down from this seed.

I am more concerned about the Dodgers pulling Glasnow early given that they likely want him to pitch one of their first playoff games next week. Since the Mariners have a bye through the Wild Card round, I expect them to treat this more like a “full” tune-up spot for Gilbert. To be clear, I do not know anything here with certainty. This is an educated guess. For the reasons I have outlined, I prefer spending up for Gilbert over Glasnow, especially if the Dodgers rest some of their bigger hitters. If you think both teams are cautious with their aces, feel free to fade both of them.

If you don’t want to trust Glasnow or Gilbert, where can you pivot? Enter Spencer Strider. There is no doubt that he hasn’t met expectations this season, and he was downright awful in the middle of the year. However, there have been positive signs of late, as Strider has struck out at least 6 batters in each of his last 3 starts, and he has an ERA close to 2.00 in September. It’s a step in the right direction, even if it’s not spectacular. He draws a great matchup against a Pirates team that has the worst team wOBA in all of baseball against RHP this year, and they also rank among the top third of the league in strikeout rate. The Braves have nothing to play for at this point, and I think they look to have Strider finish the year on a strong note.

Michael King is a really interesting case here. The Padres are basically locked into a road Wild Card series against the Cubs, but they would probably like King to be available as a potential starter in this series. They should use this as a final tune-up opportunity for that. He got up to 70 pitches in his last start, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get to the 80-85 pitch range. That’s not enough to make him anywhere near a must play, but it could absolutely be enough for him to be optimal, especially if any of the other aces are limited.

I don’t really have any interest in Andrew Abbott at his salary. He doesn’t have a lot of strikeout upside, and the Brewers likely will still be trying to wrap up the #1 seed. The Brewers offense has been pesky all year long, and I just don’t see a reason to try this as anything other than a large-field GPP dart.

In short, I will have the most exposure to Spencer Strider and Logan Gilbert out of this tier, with maybe a sprinkle of Michael King. I don’t trust the Dodgers to give Tyler Glasnow anything close to a full start with the team having absolutely zero incentive to push him.

SECONDARY PITCHING OPTIONS

Want to read more? Sign up for Premium!

-

-