Astros' Yordan Alvarez: Advances to hitting drills

Alvarez (oblique) hit off a tee and took soft-toss Wednesday, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports.

Alvarez is slowly but steadily easing back into baseball activities as he tries to get over the hump in his recovery from the right oblique strain that has sidelined him since early June. There's no exact timetable yet for his return to the Astros' active roster, but mid-July seems like a reasonable target if he's able to avoid setbacks. When healthy this year, the 26-year-old slugger has produced a .978 OPS with 17 home runs and 55 RBI across 57 games.