It's not a major update, but manager Joe Maddon said today 3B Evan Longoria is "getting better" and will join the team on the upcoming road trip with the idea that he will step up his baseball activity.

"What we like is that it's getting better,'' Maddon said. "He's feeling less strain on different movements, which is a good thing. If you watch him hit, you'd never know it. If you watch him pick up a normal ground ball you would never know that he's bothered. But he still is.''

Maddon said, however, there is still no timetable for Longoria to start on a minor-league rehab, nor for his return. Longoria has been out since partially tearing his left hamstring on April 30. The Rays are 32-36 without him and have used seven other players at third base.

"He's going to come on the trip with us and try to involve the baseball skill work also, and then from there try to determine when is the appropriate time to send him back out to actually start playing again,'' Maddon said. "We haven't decided that yet, we haven't even put like a potential date on going out and doing a rehab.''