Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks Today for Sunday 5/3

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2026-05-03 15:12:31 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 3, 2026.

Happy Sunday, Grinders! We have a relatively small main slate for a Sunday, with 8 games available on the DraftKings docket today. FanDuel is adding the ATL/COL game in Coors Field to their main slate, so we have 9 games over there.

For the second straight day, we have a slate where there aren’t any major weather concerns, so it should be all systems go to play whomever you want. Let’s see what this Sunday has to offer for MLB DFS picks!

Sunday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel

TOP TIER PITCHERS

This is a bit of a strange slate for pitching, as we don’t have a clear-cut ace at the top. The dividing line between the tiers of pitchers is small, but I do have some conviction on the ones that I like.

• Max Fried vs. Orioles
• Jesus Luzardo at Marlins
• Chase Burns at Pirates
• Ranger Suarez vs. Astros

As usual, I will start with a peek at the 2026 numbers for our top group of pitchers:

Fried – 2.09 ERA, 3.92 xFIP, 20.9% K, 6.8% BB
Luzardo – 5.50 ERA, 2.59 xFIP, 28.3% K, 6.2% BB
Burns – 2.65 ERA, 3.30 xFIP, 28.5% K, 8.8% BB
Suarez – 3.09 ERA, 3.61 xFIP, 22.0% K, 6.8% BB

All of these pitchers are quality arms, and you can see the clear outlier in the ERA numbers. Jesus Luzardo has a 5.50 ERA on the year despite his peripheral metrics looking fine. He has been victimized by an opposing BABIP north of .350 so far in 2026, and there is nothing to suggest there is long-term concern. The 2.59 xFIP is almost a full THREE runs lower than his ERA, and I like this matchup against the Marlins.

There is a clear gap among these pitchers. Max Fried and Ranger Suarez are very, very good real life pitchers. However, they just haven’t shown the strikeout upside that you get from Luzardo and Chase Burns. If I had to choose between just them, I’ll take Fried with his longer term track record. I also like his matchup as a lefty against the Orioles more than Suarez against a Houston team that profiles better against LHP.

If choosing between Luzardo and Burns among the higher-strikeout arms, I am giving a clear edge to Luzardo. He pitched 7 shutout innings with no walks and 8 strikeouts in his last outing, and the Marlins rank 23rd in team wOBA and 27th in team ISO against lefties so far in 2025. Burns is certainly fine as well but carries just a little more risk against a Pirates team that has exploded against the Reds over the weekend.

I’ll rank this tier overall as Luzardo > Fried > Burns > Suarez, and I feel pretty good about that ordering. Luzardo is my clear SP1 today.

SECONDARY ARMS

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