MLB DFS Live Before Lock Picks: June 24, 2026

Wednesday's MLB DFS Live Before Lock was a two-slate night. Host Eric Lindquist walked a seven-game DraftKings main slate and a different, earlier-locking FanDuel slate, reading the board through the Stokastic MLB DFS Sims the whole way. There was one obvious nuclear chalk spot, a couple of pitchers the Sims pushed hard against, and one tournament stack he could not stop talking about. Here is how the night shaped up.

In Summary

• Top DraftKings pitchers: Shohei Ohtani ($11,500) and Trey Yesavage. Ohtani is the security blanket against the Twins; Yesavage draws a Houston lineup running out six righties.
• The chalk: Milwaukee. The Brewers facing Rhett Lowder were the field's favorite stack, though ownership is more mitigated than a Coors or Vegas spot.
• The favorite tournament stack: the Atlanta Braves against JP Sears. Sears was getting rocked at Triple-A, and the Braves sat at just over 5% projected ownership in the Sims.
• FanDuel cash pitcher: Tarik Skubal. Class of that slate, with Ryan Weathers ($9K) as the leverage pivot and a Washington Nationals stack as the host's favorite hitting spot.
• The value one-off: Henry Bolte ($3,000). The Athletics leadoff man's speed made him a late add once the lineup posted.

Watch the Video

Watch the full breakdown of both slates, including the Sims reads on every pitcher and stack, on Wednesday's MLB DFS Live Before Lock. Watch on YouTube.

The DraftKings Pitchers: Ohtani and Yesavage on Top

The main slate has real nuance at pitcher. Nobody pulled above 50% ownership in the host's top 150, so this is a choose-your-own-adventure board rather than a single locked-in ace.

Shohei Ohtani ($11,500) is the highest-projected arm by a clear margin and the most-owned pitcher on the slate, facing a Minnesota Twins lineup that strikes out more than its season-long numbers suggest now that Matt Wallner has been optioned to Triple-A. His splitter is one of the best pitches in baseball and he is sitting on a sub-4% barrel rate. The strikeout total is only 6.5, which feels low for him, but the underrated edge is roster construction: when Ohtani pitches, his bat comes off the board, which spreads ownership across the rest of the top tier instead of concentrating it on him as a one-off. As Lindquist put it, "the security blanket you're getting from Shohei Ohtani is pretty undeniable."

Trey Yesavage was the arm the host was genuinely excited about. Houston's current lineup is short on left-handed bats outside of Yordan Alvarez, and with Christian Walker getting a day off, the Astros were set to send six right-handed hitters to the plate. Yesavage carries a pronounced platoon split, roughly a 27.6% strikeout rate against righties versus 20.6% against lefties, so that lineup is close to an optimal matchup. He had not yet pushed through 25% ownership, which made him the host's preferred way to get the very top of the strikeout range.

Pitcher	Salary (DK)	Role	The read
Shohei Ohtani	$11,500	Top-projected anchor	Security blanket vs. the Twins; removing his bat spreads slate ownership
Trey Yesavage	Top tier	Highest strikeout upside	Six Houston righties; ~27.6% K rate vs. RHH, under 25% owned
Shane Drohan	$6,500	Value/correlation	Southpaw vs. a strikeout-prone Reds lineup; pairs with a Brewers stack

If you would rather pivot down in price, Shane Drohan ($6,500) was the cheap arm the host kept circling. The Milwaukee-Cincinnati series has produced wild totals, but Drohan is a southpaw who misses more bats against right-handers and does a decent job limiting power despite a fly-ball profile. The angle that makes him interesting is correlation: pairing Drohan with a Milwaukee Brewers stack lets you take a shot at a Brewers win bonus while paying just $6,500 for the arm, which frees real salary for bats.

The Pitchers to Fade on This Slate

Two names the Sims pushed against stood out.

Gage Jump ($8,800) is a pitcher the host openly likes; the slider is major-league ready and he praised the stuff. But the Sims faded him here and Lindquist agreed. At $8,800 with a chunk of ownership coming, the question is strikeout upside in this specific spot, and the answer was "dicey at best." With Ohtani, Yesavage, and Joe Ryan all above him, paying up for Jump is a stand the host did not want to make.

Mitch Bratt ($4,000) is making his major-league debut for the Diamondbacks. He carries a sub-1.00 WHIP in the hitter-friendly PCL, which the host respects, but he has not pushed past five innings all season and was out for nearly three weeks before this call-up. The Sims were always going to be light on a debut arm with a capped workload, so Bratt grades as a desperation punt at best on a slate where the stacks are easy to reach. (Lindquist did note he likes Arizona on the moneyline, separate from the DFS read.)

The Stacks: Milwaukee Chalk, Atlanta for Leverage

The board's one nuclear chalk spot is the Milwaukee Brewers against Rhett Lowder. It is the resounding industry-wide call, and the host expects it to be the most-owned stack. The one nuance: because this is not Coors or Vegas, ownership is at least somewhat mitigated, with expensive bats like William Contreras, Jackson Chourio, and Brice Turang carrying the price tags. It is a strong spot; it is just the spot the whole field is on.

The stack the host was obsessed with is the Atlanta Braves against JP Sears. The case is simple and it is grounded in the Sims, not vibes: Sears has been getting rocked at Triple-A, posting a 7.92 ERA and a 1.84 WHIP across 14 games, and a WHIP that high with that batting average against does not survive a major-league lineup without an unsustainable strand rate. The Braves give you a deep menu of bats to work with, including Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, and Michael Harris II hitting second against a lefty, plus salary-saver Eli White at $2,400. The kicker: the stack was sitting at just over 5% projected ownership in the Sims, enormous upside on a team this good. The host called it his favorite tournament stack, "period, end of story."

Get the same tools the show uses. The Stokastic MLB DFS Sims build and grade your lineups, the Top Stacks tool surfaces the teams the field is underweight on, and the Ownership projections show you where the leverage is. Get 15% off any DFS or Props package with code MLBLBL: start with Stokastic+.

The other stacks the host weighed:

• Los Angeles Dodgers pair naturally with Ohtani. Stacking them means losing the Ohtani bat, which trims a lot of salary, and the host liked Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts as a way to get leverage on Joe Ryan if you are not playing Ryan yourself.
• New York Mets against Shota Imanaga drew the host into their corner, headlined by Francisco Lindor.
• Toronto Blue Jays are popular against Mike Burrows, who has been hit hard by righties. The catch: the Jays actually played the splits and ran out a righty-heavy order (Springer, Guerrero, Kirk, Schneider), which makes the matchup live but reduces the platoon edge you might have expected.

The FanDuel Slate: Skubal, Weathers, and Washington

FanDuel is a completely different, earlier-locking slate. Tarik Skubal is the class of it and the obvious cash pitcher; even in a down year, he keeps dominating right-handers. The pivot off him is Ryan Weathers ($9,000), who provides strikeouts (a 29% rate against lefties, 27% against righties) and gives you leverage if Skubal underperforms, without having to stack hitters directly against Skubal.

On the hitting side, the host's favorite FanDuel stack is the Washington Nationals against Aaron Nola. His read on Nola was blunt: "He's got 99 problems and lefties are 98 of them." Washington carries the fourth-highest ISO against left-handers, headed by CJ Abrams and James Wood, in a ballpark where the wind helps left-handed pull power. The host also did not mind stacking the Phillies against the Nationals' opener look, but Washington was the clear lead.

Worked Example: How I'd Use the Sims on This Board

Here is the process I would run, mirroring what the host did live. Start at pitcher, because the two arms you pick fund everything else. On DraftKings, I would anchor to Ohtani for security or Yesavage for the top of the strikeout range, then decide whether to pay down to Drohan to open up the stacks. From there, I generate a lineup pool in the Stokastic MLB DFS Sims, filter to that exact pitching combination, and read which stacks the Sims keep building around it.

This is also where the ownership math gets honest. The whole field is going to be on Milwaukee, so the question is not "is Milwaukee good" (it is) but "what am I getting different from the field." That is why the Atlanta-against-Sears read matters so much: a top-tier offense at 5% ownership is exactly the kind of leverage the Top Stacks and Ownership tools are built to surface. I would let the Sims grade a Brewers build and an Atlanta build side by side, then lean toward the one the field is underweight on for tournaments. If you want a deeper refresher on building around leverage, our MLB DFS contrarian strategy guide and MLB stacking guide both cover the framework.

One-Offs and Value

The late-breaking value play was Henry Bolte ($3,000) for the Athletics. Once the lineup posted with Bolte leading off (and Zack Gelof out after a hand injury), the host's interest jumped and he went back to re-run his Sims to add exposure. Bolte's elite speed gives him a way to accumulate fantasy points by beating out singles and stealing bases even before his bat fully catches up, and he draws a Tyler Mahle matchup that has had a problem with right-handed power. He is cash-viable in theory but most useful as a cheap tournament one-off you can fit anywhere.

The other expensive-but-interesting one-off was Nick Kurtz for the A's in San Francisco, against an arm that tends to give up more right-handed power. For more on the DFS terms used throughout this recap, see our MLB DFS glossary.

FAQ

Who are the top MLB DFS pitchers for June 24? On DraftKings, Shohei Ohtani ($11,500) is the highest-projected arm against the Twins, with Trey Yesavage the host's favorite for top-of-the-range strikeouts against a righty-heavy Houston lineup. Shane Drohan ($6,500) is the value pivot. On FanDuel, Tarik Skubal is the cash pitcher.

What is the best MLB DFS stack on June 24? Milwaukee against Rhett Lowder is the chalk, but the host's favorite tournament stack is the Atlanta Braves against JP Sears, who was getting hit hard at Triple-A. Atlanta sat at just over 5% projected ownership in the Sims.

Which pitchers did the show fade? Gage Jump ($8,800) and Mitch Bratt ($4,000), a debut arm. The Sims were light on both, and the host preferred Ohtani, Yesavage, and Joe Ryan in that price range.

Where can I build these MLB DFS lineups myself? The Stokastic MLB DFS Sims, Top Stacks, and Ownership projections live on the Stokastic MLB DataHub. The single-lineup Sim shown on the stream is part of the same toolset.

Build Your Own Lineups

Everything on the show ran through the Stokastic MLB DFS Sims: build the player pool, filter to your pitchers, read the stacks, and grade your final lineup before lock. Top Stacks shows you which teams the field is over and underweight, and Ownership projections turn that into real leverage. Try it on tonight's slate and take 15% off any DFS or Props package with code MLBLBL: grab Stokastic+ now.