Abrams could be ready to return, Soroka to rehab again Sunday

CJ Abrams should be back at Nationals Park on Thursday. Then, it’s just a question of whether the team will activate their All-Star shortstop off the 10-day injured list in time for their series finale against the Orioles or will wait for Friday’s series opener against the Mets.

Abrams, who has a right hip flexor strain, played his second rehab game today for Double-A Harrisburg, completing all nine innings while taking four plate appearances. This after he played six innings in the field Tuesday night and took three plate appearances.

His total offensive stats over these two games: 0-for-4 with two walks, a strikeout and a sacrifice fly.

“I think they were a little scared to pitch to him,” right-hander Michael Soroka, who pitched Tuesday as part of his own rehab assignment with Harrisburg, said with a laugh.

Of far more consequence than Abrams’ production was his ability to play 15 innings in less than 24 hours without any apparent physical issues.

“I watched some of his at-bats, and he looked good,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow and go from there. But he said he had no issues, no pain. He played pain-free, so that’s great.”

Abrams was eligible to come off the IL on Tuesday, but the Nationals wanted him to play in at least a couple of rehab games first to get him back into baseball shape. He’ll now return to D.C. and check in with club officials and doctors Thursday, at which point a decision will be made whether he’s ready to return for the series finale against the Orioles, or if he needs another day.

“The biggest thing now is, he played two days without any pain. It’s to see how he rebounds tomorrow,” Martinez said. “He played nine innings. Hopefully he wakes up and he’s not sore.”

* Soroka was back in town today, both to make a pre-planned appearance on behalf of the club at Joint Base Andrews and to check in with the team after his rehab start Tuesday night. The right-hander threw 46 pitches over 2 2/3 innings for Harrisburg, striking out three and allowing a two-run homer to the final batter he faced.

Out since straining his right biceps muscle during his March 31 season debut, Soroka was pleased with how things went in this rehab start.

“I thought everything felt pretty good. The bicep was not a problem at all,” he said. “Got our pitch count total, got out there and competed a little bit. I made, I thought, some pretty good pitches and got beat on one that I’m still not sure how he got to.”

Soroka said he’ll return to Harrisburg to make another start Sunday, this time potentially building up to 70-75 pitches. It’s unclear if that will be enough to satisfy the Nats on if he can be activated, but he doesn’t seem to believe he needs much more time beyond that.

“Just a shortened build-up phase,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll take as much time as you would in spring training, because I did make a start about 20 days ago. It’s not like it happened three or four months ago. I’m not sure how many pitches next time out, but definitely a good bit more.”