HOUSTON (AP) — Mike Trout hit off a pitching machine Friday for the first time since fracturing his left hamate bone and manager Phil Nevin said the Angels’ star outfielder is moving closer to a return.

Trout has been out since July 3 and Nevin said before the start of a series with the Astros that the team believes he’s close, but that there still isn’t a timetable for his return.

“There’s going to be some hot spots around the wrist,” Nevin said. “It’s natural when these things happen with this surgery. It’s not necessarily … where it was fixed, but the areas around it, it could get sensitive. So, you’ve got to keep swinging.”

Trout hit off a tee earlier this week.

Nevin added that the more swings he gets in, the more he’ll start to feel like he can “let it go, which I don’t think is too far way.”

Nevin said he wasn’t sure whether Trout would go on a rehabilitation assignment before coming off the injured list and said that they’ll discuss that in the next day or two.

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