Best MLB DFS Picks for Saturday, May 23: Top Value Plays for Today’s Slate
Saturday’s Memorial Day weekend MLB slate is a monster, featuring 15 games spread across the afternoon and evening. With this much action on the board, DFS players have the luxury of being selective, hunting the best matchups and leaving salary on the table rather than forcing square plays. Three of those games are nationally televised, which typically drives ownership toward those contests — meaning some of Saturday’s best value plays may fly under the radar in the secondary games.
Today’s approach leans heavily on matchup exploitation. Two elite starters face genuinely bad opposing pitching, while the hitter targets are positioned against pitchers who have been leaking runs all season. The goal is a mix of safe floor plays anchored by elite pitching and a couple of mid-range bats who can produce multi-category DFS lines. Here are the five plays worth building around on the DraftKings main slate for Saturday, May 23.
Paul Skenes, SP — Pittsburgh Pirates (vs. Toronto Blue Jays)
Paul Skenes is simply the most dominant young pitcher in baseball, and Saturday he draws one of the softer matchups of his season. Skenes enters this start with a 6-3 record, 2.62 ERA, and a jaw-dropping 0.71 WHIP across 10 starts and 55.0 innings in 2026. He has already racked up 63 strikeouts on the year, averaging better than a strikeout per inning while issuing almost no walks. His career ERA sits at 2.06 over 65 big-league appearances — numbers that hold up to any pitcher in the game today.
Toronto is sending Patrick Corbin to the mound for the Blue Jays, which is exactly the kind of soft opposing starter that keeps total run expectations down and DFS pitching upside intact for the man on the other side. Skenes consistently goes deep into games — he has the stuff and the stamina to give you 6-plus quality innings on a regular basis. For DFS purposes, his strikeout rate alone makes him a cornerstone play, and at a park that does not especially favor hitters, his floor is as high as anyone on today’s board. He is the premium pitcher play of the slate.
Zack Wheeler, SP — Philadelphia Phillies (vs. Cleveland Guardians)
Zack Wheeler has returned from his 2025 thoracic outlet surgery looking every bit as sharp as he did during his All-Star seasons. In five starts this year, he is 3-0 with a 1.99 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, and 30 strikeouts across 31.2 innings. The Phillies ace has simply picked up where he left off, and Saturday he draws the Cleveland Guardians with Slade Cecconi getting the start on the other side.
Wheeler’s 2024 and 2025 track record speaks to his elite ceiling — he finished second in NL Cy Young voting in 2024 with a 2.57 ERA and 224 strikeouts, and was an All-Star in both seasons. His current 0.88 WHIP ranks among the best in the NL, and the Phillies play in a lineup that creates enough of a run environment to support win probability. Citizens Bank Park does lean toward hitters, but Wheeler’s arsenal is built to handle it. This is the second-best pitching play of the day and fits comfortably at a mid-to-premium salary level for DraftKings lineups. If you are stacking two starting pitchers in a GPP build, Wheeler and Skenes make an excellent pairing.
Riley Greene, OF — Detroit Tigers (vs. Baltimore Orioles)
Riley Greene is having the best season of his career through the first two months, slashing .324/.389/.500 with a .889 OPS across 185 at-bats in 2026. The Tigers left fielder has 4 home runs, 24 RBI, and is doing damage all over the field, hitting for average while posting the kind of multi-category line that pays off in DFS formats where you score on hits, runs, RBI, and stolen bases. He ranked around $4,200 on DraftKings on Friday, which represents excellent value for a hitter producing at this level.
The matchup Saturday is also in his favor. Baltimore is starting Brandon Young, who is still working to establish himself at the major league level. Greene has proven he can hit right-handed pitching consistently, and he has the batting order pedigree — hitting near the top of a Detroit lineup that has been generating traffic on the bases — to give him regular run-scoring opportunities. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a fair hitting environment that does not suppress power. Greene checks the boxes on form, salary, and matchup, making him one of the cleaner value plays on a loaded Saturday slate. If you are playing DraftKings cash games today, he belongs in most builds.
Corbin Carroll, OF — Arizona Diamondbacks (vs. Colorado Rockies)
Corbin Carroll has quietly put together a strong 2026, posting a .943 OPS with 7 home runs, 26 RBI, and 6 stolen bases through 167 at-bats. He walked off the Colorado Rockies earlier in this series with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, and Saturday he gets another crack at one of the most hittable pitchers on any given night in baseball.
Michael Lorenzen takes the ball for Colorado carrying a 7.03 ERA and a 1.91 WHIP through his 2026 starts. Those numbers are not a sample-size fluke — they reflect a veteran right-hander who has simply struggled to limit damage this season. Lefty and righty splits against Lorenzen have been problematic all year, and Carroll, a left-handed hitter, represents exactly the kind of bat you want facing a struggling pitcher in a hitter-friendly environment. Chase Field in Phoenix plays extremely well for offense, with the warm Arizona temperatures and the park’s dimensions helping the ball carry. Carroll offers a dual threat in both power and speed categories, and his elevated OPS suggests he is operating at a high level right now. He is a strong GPP target and an aggressive cash game consideration depending on his final DraftKings salary for today’s slate.
George Kirby, SP — Seattle Mariners (vs. Kansas City Royals)
George Kirby is the lower-profile arm on this card, but he fills an important role as a salary-efficient pitching option that allows you to load up on premium hitters or premium plays elsewhere. Through 10 starts in 2026, Kirby is 5-3 with a 3.45 ERA, 52 strikeouts, and a 1.18 WHIP across 62.2 innings. His calling card has always been extraordinary walk avoidance — he literally set a record streak for starts with two or fewer walks allowed — and that control keeps his floor elevated even in tough spots.
Saturday he faces the Kansas City Royals with Stephen Kolek getting the start for Kansas City. The Royals offense has been inconsistent against right-handed pitching, and Kirby’s ability to induce weak contact and limit free passes translates directly to DFS-friendly pitching lines. He may not pile up the strikeout totals that Skenes or Wheeler will, but he gives you innings, prevents damage, and positions you for a quality start. For DFS players who prefer to pay down on pitching and invest salary in a four- or five-man hitter stack, Kirby is the play that enables that construction. He is a proven contributor on FanDuel as well, where pitchers are rewarded heavily for innings pitched alongside strikeouts.
Building Your Lineup
The two-pitcher stack of Skenes and Wheeler gives you elite strikeout upside and strong win probability on both sides. If you are playing GPP tournaments where you need differentiation, consider pivoting off Wheeler in favor of Kirby to free up salary for an additional premium hitter. The Arizona and Detroit stacks — Carroll plus teammates in a Diamondbacks stack against Lorenzen, or Greene alongside other Tigers against Brandon Young — offer natural stacking opportunities that not every lineup builder will exploit on a big 15-game slate.
On a slate this large, ownership will cluster toward the nationally televised games: the Mariners-Royals matchup on FS1, and the Dodgers-Brewers game on FOX. That creates opportunity to differentiate with plays from secondary games like the Tigers-Orioles contest and the Cardinals-Reds doubleheader. The DFS platforms will have guaranteed prize pool contests with significant overlays on a Memorial Day weekend slate this size, so targeting lower-owned plays from the afternoon games could be exactly the edge you need to separate in large-field GPPs. Prioritize confirmed lineups before locking your roster, watch for any late weather news affecting East Coast games, and build around these five plays as your foundation.
Aaron White
Sports Betting Contributor
Aaron White graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Economics. His industry experience includes projects for the Chicago Cubs, The Sporting News, and QL Gaming Group. At Hello Rookie, he covers the NFL and NBA from a betting and DFS perspective.
