Brewers: When Is Luis Urias Expected To Return From Injury?

The Milwaukee Brewers have been missing Luis Urias in their lineup ever since Opening Day. Urias suffered a hamstring strain running down the first base line at Wrigley Field and the Brewers haven't been at full strength since.

Urias also missed an early chunk of the season last year with a quad strain suffered in spring training.

Urias has now spent the required 60 days on the injured list, he's out on a rehab assignment, and there's an open 40 man roster spot for his return. So when will he be back?

The Brewers are expected to activate Luis Urias off the injured list next week when they return for their homestand against the Orioles.

Despite the placement of Willy Adames on the injured list, opening up a huge need for the Brewers on the infield for someone with shortstop experience, Milwaukee opted not to activate Urias. Instead they selected the contract of Andruw Monasterio to make his MLB debut.

Craig Counsell wants Urias' rehab assignment to last a little bit longer.

Frankly, it makes sense. Urias has been out of baseball action for two months and needs to get his legs back underneath him after that hamstring strain. Barely a week of a rehab assignment is not going to be enough for Urias to be ready for MLB action again.

Considering Urias didn't get a hit through his first 13 at-bats in Triple-A, giving him some more time is the right call.

If the Brewers decided to bring up Urias immediately, it's highly likely he would've struggled to get going through the first week and that would've been even more frustrating to the Brewers and fans. The Brewers don't feel he's ready yet and want to get him a solid base of games under his belt before they bring him up.

Urias was only healthy for one game of the regular season. His playing time in spring training was fairly sporadic, as it is with all veterans who have guaranteed spots on the roster. He played in just nine spring training games with 20 at-bats. However, he also was on Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic, which did eat into his official spring stats even though he was still getting competitive at-bats.

The good news is Urias isn't far away from his return to the big leagues. He hasn't suffered a setback or anything like that. The Brewers simply want to get him more rehab at-bats while they can and make sure he's ready to go before they activate him.