Saturday’s MLB slate rolls out a robust 10-game card, and there’s plenty to work with for cash games and GPPs alike. Yoshinobu Yamamoto anchors the pitching pool after a complete-game gem, while a pair of contending offenses in Minnesota and Cleveland both draw favorable matchups against shaky right-handed starters. With DraftKings and FanDuel salaries settling in after a busy week of transactions, there’s a clean split tonight between one clear stud arm and several affordable bats stacked against exploitable pitching.

Our approach for today’s MLB DFS picks is straightforward: pay up for the ace who gives you a rare shutdown floor, then build out with hitters in plus matchups rather than chasing name value. Two of today’s plays come from the same Twins-Athletics game, one leans on a red-hot Guardians leadoff man, and the last two round out a pitcher-and-value combination that should anchor solid DraftKings and FanDuel lineups for cash games and GPP picks alike.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, SP — Los Angeles Dodgers ($9,900 DK)

Yamamoto is squarely in stud territory tonight on the road against the Mets, and the recent workload backs it up. Across his last seven starts he’s posted a 1.51 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 47.2 innings, a stretch that includes a complete-game outing against the Yankees in which he allowed just two earned runs on four hits with seven strikeouts for 34.4 DraftKings points. He’s finished with 20-plus fantasy points in 10 outings this season, four of those north of 30 FPTS, and he’s only dipped into single digits three times all year.

The season-long profile is just as clean: a 2.49 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, and a 19.3% K-BB% that ranks among the better marks in the league, with a 3.33 FIP suggesting the results are earned rather than lucky. Tonight’s Mets lineup gives him a soft landing spot — New York ranks 23rd in ISO, 26th in wRC+, and 29th in wOBA as a team, which is about as favorable a matchup profile as an ace can ask for on the road. At $9,900, Yamamoto is priced like a top-tier arm, but the swing-and-miss stuff plus a bottom-third offense on the other side makes him a legitimate cash-game anchor as well as a GPP piece if you’re willing to pay the salary. If you’re also weighing the game total for a betting angle alongside your DFS build, it’s worth a quick check of the MLB odds before lock.

Kody Clemens, 2B — Minnesota Twins ($5,000 DK)

Clemens sits in the stud-value tier tonight against an Athletics pitching staff that’s been getting hit hard all year. Right-hander Mason Barnett carries a 5.87 FIP overall and has already allowed five home runs in just 21.1 innings this season, with an 89.1 mph average exit velocity and a 10.5% barrel rate allowed. Against left-handed hitters specifically, Barnett’s numbers fall apart further — a 7.95 FIP and a paltry 2.4% K-BB% — which is exactly the split Clemens, a left-handed bat, is built to exploit.

Clemens brings his own strong batted-ball profile into the matchup, running a 92.7 mph average exit velocity and a 12.4% barrel rate on the season. Against right-handed pitching he’s posted a 115 wRC+ and a .248 ISO, and 14 of his 18 home runs this year have come off right-handers — precisely the pitcher type he’s facing tonight. At $5,000, he’s a mid-range piece that offers real power upside against one of the softer matchups on the board, making him a strong building block for a Twins stack in both cash and tournament builds.

Trevor Larnach, OF — Minnesota Twins ($3,900 DK)

Larnach is the natural pairing with Clemens tonight, giving DFS players a way to double up on the same plus matchup without breaking the bank. He’s been hitting primarily out of the leadoff spot since early June, which means added plate appearances and extra opportunities to compound the salary value. Against right-handed pitching, Larnach carries a 146 wRC+ and a .164 ISO, and six of his eight home runs this season have come against righties — again, dead-on for a Barnett matchup that already looks like one of the day’s softest pitching assignments.

At $3,900, Larnach slots in as an easy value play beneath the Twins’ more expensive bats, and stacking him with Clemens lets you attack the same soft spot in the Athletics’ rotation from two lineup slots without committing a huge chunk of your budget. For lineup builders looking to squeeze extra correlation out of a game environment, the Twins-Athletics matchup is one of the more attractive stacking spots on the slate.

Steven Kwan, OF — Cleveland Guardians ($2,700 DK)

Kwan is in the middle of a real hot streak, and the price hasn’t caught all the way up to the recent form. Over his last seven games he’s hitting .316 with a .435 on-base percentage, and he’s carried that momentum over a longer 15-game window as well, slashing .295 with a .392 OBP in that span. He’s set up as Cleveland’s confirmed leadoff hitter tonight, which means a near-guaranteed four-plus plate appearances to work with.

At just $2,700, Kwan is one of the cheapest confirmed leadoff bats on the board, and a hitter running a sub-.300 average with an OBP well above .400 over the last two weeks is exactly the kind of floor play that helps cash-game lineups stay balanced while freeing up salary for the pitcher and power bats elsewhere in the build. He won’t put up huge power numbers, but the volume of plate appearances and the recent contact quality make him a sneaky-cheap floor piece for tonight’s slate.

Cedric Mullins, OF — Tampa Bay Rays ($3,000 DK)

Mullins rounds out the picks as a home run-driven GPP piece against a Cleveland pitching staff he matches up well against on paper. Tanner Bibee gets the ball for the Guardians, and he’s been considerably more hittable against left-handed batters this season, posting a 5.08 FIP against lefties and serving up 14 of his 20 allowed home runs to left-handed hitters. Mullins bats left-handed and has hit every one of his 12 home runs this season against right-handed and now increasingly against pitchers he sees from the left side of the plate in exactly this kind of split.

The season-long triple-slash of .201/.283/.344 isn’t pretty, and the 4.3% barrel rate reflects a player who hasn’t squared the ball up consistently. But dig past the batting average and there’s a .220 BABIP masking real production underneath — 12 homers, 36 runs, 31 RBIs and 16 stolen bases across 342 plate appearances, with a stretch in late June where he posted double-digit fantasy points in five of six games. At $3,000, Mullins offers a rare power-speed combination at minimum salary, and the specific split against Bibee makes tonight a smart spot to take that shot in tournament lineups.

Building Your Lineup

Tonight’s board sets up cleanly around one core decision: pay for Yamamoto’s shutdown floor at the top, or build a full stack of value bats and spend down at pitcher. If you go the studs-and-scrubs route, Yamamoto plus the Twins pairing of Clemens and Larnach gives you correlated upside against a beatable Athletics arm while still leaving plenty of salary for a power bat at another position. Kwan is the easiest floor piece to pair anywhere in your build given the leadoff volume and recent contact rates, and he’s cheap enough to fit into almost any lineup shape without a real opportunity cost.

For GPP builds looking to differentiate from the field, Mullins is the play to lean on — a $3,000 outfielder with a real platoon-driven home run angle against Bibee should carry lower ownership than the more obvious Twins stack pieces, giving you a legitimate lottery ticket at the minimum price point. If you’re deciding between DraftKings and FanDuel pricing for these same players, note that salaries can shift meaningfully between sites, so double-check exact numbers in your lineup builder before locking anything in — new users still weighing which platform to build on can check the latest DraftKings promo terms first.