Kansas City Royals infielder Nick Loftin is not in the lineup for Monday afternoon's series opener against right-hander Cal Quantrill and the Cleveland Guardians.
Michael Massey will replace Loftin on second base and hit fifth. Nick Pratto will also take over on first base for Matt Duffy and bat seventh.
numberFire’s models project Massey ($5,500) for 9.0 and Pratto ($6,000) for 7.3 FanDuel points on the single-game slate Monday. Per our MLB Heat Map, the Royals' implied total is 4.59 while the game total is a batter-friendly 9.5. Quantrill has a 5.40 ERA and 5.75 xERA (bottom 6th percentile of league) this season, with a 36.5% hard-hit rate (top 67th), 12.1% strikeout rate (one of the worst in the league), and 6.9% walk rate.
Source: MLB.com