Royals activate Adalberto Mondesi from the injured list

The Royals have activated Adalberto Mondesi from the 10-day injured list and have optioned infielder Humberto Arteaga to Triple-A Omaha. They also recalled reliever Jake Newberry and optioned reliever Scott Barlow to Omaha.

Mondesi had been out since June 18 after leaving a game against the Mariners with a groin injury. He completed a rehab assignment in Northwest Arkansas over the weekend and will rejoin the team at home against the Indians tonight. Mondesi was hitting .269/.304/.441 with a league-high 27 steals this year. Arteaga filled in well defensively for Mondesi, but struggled a bit with the bat, hitting .237/.293/.556 in 11 games.

Barlow is sent down after giving up two runs on Saturday and 20 runs over his last 14 outings for a 12.86 ERA. Overall he has a 6.19 ERA with 52 strikeouts in 36 ¹⁄₃ innings, but has given up six home runs and walked 4.2 per-nine-innings.

Newberry was up earlier in the season with the Royals and has a 4.50 ERA in 16 innings with 13 strikeouts. He had a 3.15 ERA in 20 innings with the Omaha Storm Chasers.

Barlow showed a lot of promise early in the season, but was obviously scuffling lately, so a trip to the minors may do him a lot of good. It is curious the Royals passed on bringing back lefty Richard Lovelady, but perhaps they saw more use out of the right-handed Newberry.