Prior to Friday night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was asked how third baseman Juan Uribe was coming along in his recovery from his right hamstring injury.

“He’s swinging the bat good, he’s been taking BP, he’s looked fine,” said Mattingly. “His main thing is going to be when is he going to play a few games? I know he still hasn’t passed the base running type stuff yet. He has to do the curves and turns, so we’re still a few days away, we know that’s part of it. But ground ball-wise, swinging the bat in BP-wise he looks pretty good, he’s been doing a lot of different types of running, so we think he’s not too far away but, again, not tomorrow.”

Uribe first strained his hamstring back on May 8, for which he was not placed on the disabled list but instead sat out for five games. But on May 20, the 35-year-old Dominican Republic native re-injured the same hamstring in a game against the Mets at Citi Field and he immediately knew that it was much worse this time.

“Right now, it’s not feeling good,” Uribe told reporters after the game. “It feels really bad now. I’ll wait for tomorrow, but it feels [worse] than last time. I felt it going to first base and felt it pull a little bit more. Oh yeah, it’s worse.”

Dodgers third baseman Juan Uribe limps off the field after re-injuring his right hamstring on May 20 against the Mets at Citi Field. (Video capture courtesy of MLB.com)

As the Dodgers learned from a much younger Matt Kemp two years ago, hamstring injuries are not something that you rush back from. Kemp, as you may recall, came back from a strained hamstring shortly after his 15-day DL period ended. He then re-injured it two days later and was lost for nearly two months.

Mattingly was asked if the Dodgers plan to simply activate Uribe when he is ready or if they plan to send him out for rehab games in the minor leagues.

“I think he’s going to need some at bats,” said the Dodgers skipper. “He’s been out long enough and he was out even before that, almost ten days or whatever before he came back and now it’s been a month… right around it, close to it, so it looks like he’s going to need some at bats to get ready.”

There was no mention of when or where Uribe will begin his rehab assignment but it will most likely be with the Advanced Single-A Quakes in nearby Rancho Cucamonga. That being said, the Quakes will be on their All-Star break until Thursday, June 19 when they resume play at home.