Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki returned to Denver on Monday in order for trainers to examine his progress coming back from his groin injury.
Tulowitzki is getting closer to a return and manager Jim Tracy would like to bring him back before the end of the season, but the team will be cautious with him, via Thomas Harding of MLB.com:
"I cannot tell you guys any definitive date," Tracy said before Monday night's game against the National League West-leading Giants. "There are still some things that he's trying to work out, and I mean that physically. That being the case, I do not feel like we're sending this guy out in a Major League game less than himself because of the risk of something else happening and there being another visit into my office and them telling me it will be well into 2013 or late in 2013 before we see him again.
"We have [the Giants] that we're playing seven out of the next 10 days. Anybody that's had the experience to know what it's like to win a divisional championship or a Wild Card championship, there is a high level of intensity involved in these games, one club trying to get there, the other club trying to spoil the effort. Thinking you may have a player out there that may not be quite up to par, I don't think that's a real good place to go."
Tulowitzki last suited up for Colorado in May and had surgery in June. He played nine innings for Double-A Tulsa on Sunday when the team was eliminated from the Texas League playoffs.
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