As the Cardinals and Royals prepare to resume their I-70 Series tonight at Kauffman Stadium, both franchises made some news Monday.
For the Cardinals, catcher Yadier Molina was activated off the injured list and will be on the roster tonight. Molina has spent about a month on the IL with a right thumb tendon strain.
Molina is hitting .261 with four home runs and 36 RBI this season.
St. Louis also called up outfielder Randy Arozarena from Triple-A Memphis. The 24-year-old was hitting .368 at Memphis, with seven home runs and eight stolen bases.
In corresponding moves, the Cardinals placed outfielder Jose Martinez on the IL and sent catcher Andrew Knizner to Memphis.
Martinez, who has a right AC joint sprain, is hitting .266 with 10 home runs in 348 plate appearances. Knizner was hitting .190 in limited action behind Matt Wieters, who went into the starting lineup in place of Molina.
Also on Monday, the Cardinals fired assistant hitting coach Mark Budaska. Memphis hitting coach Jobel Jimenez will replace Budaska with the team.
Jeff Albert is the Cardinals head hitting coach.
Jorge Soler of the Royals was named the American League Player of the Week, it was announced Monday.
In seven games last week, Soler hit a league-leading six home runs to go along with 12 RBI and a .409 batting average.
Soler now has 35 home runs this season, three short of Mike Moustakas' team single-season record set in 2017. Mike Trout leads the A.L. with 39 home runs.
Eric Hosmer was the last Royal to be named Player of the Week, that coming in September of 2017.
In tonight's opener of the two-game series, Jack Flaherty (5-6) will start for the Cardinals against Glenn Sparkman of the Royals (3-7). The probable starters for Wednesday are Dakota Hudson (10-6) for St. Louis against Brad Keller (7-12) for Kansas City.
Both games are slated for 7:15 p.m. starts.
The Royals and Cardinals split a two-game series earlier this season at Busch Stadium. Kansas City won the opener 8-2 while the Cardinals took the second game 10-3.