The American League Championship Series (ALCS) kicks off at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Monday night as the Tampa Bay Rays host the Cleveland Guardians. First pitch is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. ET on TBS and truTV. Below are our top MLB player props for Monday, October 12th.
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Monday's Top MLB Player Props
(Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)
Foster Griffin Over 3.5 Strikeouts (-122) & Under 13.5 Outs Recorded (-106)
Southpaw Foster Griffin has been tabbed to start Game 1 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) against the Rays, as the Guardians were forced to use lefty Parker Messick in Game 4 of the American League Division Series (ALDS) against the Chicago White Sox, and then righty Gavin Williams in Game 5, saving the season. However, it caused manager Stephen Vogt to have a little bit of a rotation issue, as he probably would’ve preferred to go with the southpaw Messick in Game 1. Now, he gets the next best thing.
Griffin is a left-handed pitcher who will be making his first-career postseason start. He came on in Game 3 of the White Sox series for his first-career postseason appearance, pitching 2.2 innings of relief after rookie opener Daniel Espino, allowing just a run and two hits with no walks. The impressive thing was that Griffin was amped, striking out seven batters for the eight outs he recorded.
Tampa Bay has great plate discipline as a team, striking out just 1,145 times in the regular season, the lowest mark in the Majors. In addition, the Rays were 31-17 against left-handed starting pitchers, so they handed the twig well against southpaws. Still, Griffin should be able to record four strikeouts before he is sent to the showers. There is little chance he goes more than four or five innings, but the power pitcher should be able to baffle at least four Rays.
Drew Rasmussen Over 5.5 Strikeouts (-113)
On the flip side, Drew Rasmussen takes the ball for Game 1, similar to the setup for the ALDS against the New York Yankees. Guardians fans hope the results aren’t the same. The 31-year-old from Puyallup, Wash., allowed just one hit and two hits with 10 strikeouts against the Bronx Bombers, serving notice to the rest of baseball that Tampa Bay does have a top-tier pitching staff, even if most casual fans can’t name them.
Rasmussen faced the Guards at Tropicana Field on July 26th, allowing just one hit and one walk and striking out nine across seven scoreless innings in a 1-0 win over Cleveland, in what was almost a carbon copy of his showing against the Yankees. Let’s go high on Rasmussen’s strikeouts prop.
Yandy Diaz 2+ Hits + Runs + RBIs (+105)
Yandy Diaz is a strong play to record at least two combined hits + runs + RBIs. It would be a bitter pill for Cleveland fans, too, at least the real ones, as Diaz began his career with Cleveland in 2017, where he played two seasons and recorded 28 RBIs. Tampa Bay has a couple of stars in its lineup who used to play at the corner of East 9th and Ontario, including Junior Caminero, a superstar who came from the Cleveland organization.
Diaz had a career-high 85 RBIs in 154 games in 2026 in the regular season, posting 26 doubles, 22 homers and an impressive .293 average with a .359 on-base percentage (OBP), .446 slugging rate and .805 OPS. He was just 3-for-12 (.250) with a walk, three strikeouts and one run in three games in the ALDS, so there is some risk here. However, he is due, and he provided seven doubles and eight homers in just 178 at-bats versus lefties, so he could take care of this prop with one swing.
