Million Dollar Musings: MLB DFS Picks Today for Wednesday 5/20

by Dave Potts (CheeseIsGood) Last Updated 2026-05-20 16:38:01 Premium Content Part of the product MLB DFS

Whether you are looking for the top pitchers or the best stacks, Dave Potts (aka CheeseIsGood) has you covered with an extensive deep dive into his MLB DFS picks today. Cheese, one of the preeminent baseball minds in all of fantasy sports and a winner of a $1,000,000 1st-place prize on both DraftKings and FanDuel, is here to give you his musings on the May 20, 2026 MLB DFS slate.

Happy Wednesday! We have a busy day with games spread out all over the place. DK has two 6-game slates, with an early slate starting at 1:05 PM ET that we’ll look at first. Their main slate is another 6-gamer at the usual 7:05 PM ET. Meanwhile, FD is starting their main slate a little earlier at 6:40 PM ET and add 3 more games (CLE/DET, ATL/MIA, NYM/WAS).

There are some moderate MLB weather concerns, with the most troubling being the TOR/NYY game on the evening slate. For now, we’ll just assume everything plays, but don’t forget to check back in on that one later before finalizing lineups.

Wednesday Early Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on DraftKings

The pitching options are a little sketchy for this early slate, and I’m finding it quite easy to whittle down to a small primary pool.

TOP TIER PITCHING

• Joe Ryan vs. Astros – 25.6% K, 6.9% BB, 3.20 ERA, 3.51 SIERA
• Emerson Hancock vs. White Sox – 27.1% K, 4.8% BB, 3.02 ERA, 3.07 SIERA
• Jack Leiter at Rockies – 25.7% K, 9.8% BB, 4.35 ERA, 3.79 SIERA

Joe Ryan and Emerson Hancock are the clear top two pitchers, and while they are the most expensive, they are both under $9,000, so it’s not all that hard to get to them. If you can only afford one, despite the great start to the season from Hancock, Ryan looks like the chalky SP1, and he’s certainly my favorite of the two. Ryan has always been a far better pitcher against righties, and while Houston can use 3-4 lefties against him, they only have one lefty that is of any real concern. Ryan has been piling up quality starts, and I see no reason not to expect another one here.

The same thing goes for Hancock, who has been fantastic at home this season. His K% is still inflated from one great start, but he’s clearly an improved pitcher, and he’s the one Seattle starter who has been able to get lefties out this season. I prefer Ryan, but my goal would just be to play them both.

If you want to dart-throw at Jack Leiter for his upside potential, that’s fine, but his very shaky control to lefties makes me quite nervous going into Coors Field, so he’s going to miss my cut.

TIER TWO PITCHING

• Aaron Nola vs. Reds – 22.9% K, 9% BB, 5.91 ERA, 4.00 SIERA
• Mike Burrows at Twins – 20.8% K, 7.7% BB, 5.72 ERA, 4.16 SIERA
• Shane Baz at Rays – 18.4% K, 9.6% BB, 5.26 ERA, 4.69 SIERA
• Merrill Kelly vs. Giants – 14.8% K, 11.6% BB, 5.91 ERA, 5.40 SIERA
• Sean Burke at Mariners – 20.3% K, 5.4% BB, 4.10 ERA, 3.87 SIERA
• Andrew Abbott at Phillies – 15.6% K, 10.2% BB, 4.21 ERA, 5.04 SIERA

Most of these pitchers have an ERA that exceeds that SIERA…and most of them by a wide margin. I can point out some specific bad luck for all of them, but at some point, we have to say there are some real issues going on here.

Aaron Nola has his ‘bad luck’ from a 17.6% HR/FB rate and a .344 BABIP. The problem with writing that off is that he had the same issue last season, with an 18.2% HR/FB rate that saddled him with a 6.01 ERA, so the home-run problems could just be real. But the good news here is that…..

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