Andrew Knizner absent for Cardinals Monday

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Andrew Knizner is not in the lineup versus left-hander Martin Perez and the Texas Rangers in Monday's series opener.

What It Means:

Knizner is out of the lineup after filling in on Sunday. Willson Contreras will catch for Adam Wainwright and hit cleanup for the Cardinals.

Per numberFire's MLB Heat Map, the Cardinals' implied total is 4.49 and the game total is 9.5. Perez has a 4.91 xFIP, 15.7% strikeout rate, and 41.5% ground-ball rate versus righties this year. He has a 16.7% strikeout rate overall and is yielding 1.48 dingers per nine frames. Contreras has a $3,000 salary on Monday and is numberFire's second-best point-per-dollar value among projected batters.