Kendrick (hamstring) joined the Nationals' taxi squad during the team's recently completed road trip and continues to make progress in his rehab, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com reports. "We're going to be careful with him," Martinez said of Kendrick. "He's had these hamstring issues before. We've talked about this: We don't want him to blow out now. But we told him as soon as [he's] ready and we deem that [he] can play, we'll activate him and see if we can get him back this week."

EDGE Analysis

The 20-32 Nationals are officially eliminated from playoff contention, but that apparently won't stop Kendrick from staging a comeback attempt during the final week of the regular season. Martinez estimated that Kendrick was running at about 60 percent speed in his most recent workout, so the 37-year-old looks like he still has a few hurdles to clear before the Nationals would give him the green light to resume playing. If Kendrick does make it back from the 10-day injured list, he could be limited to making starts at designated hitter or serving as a pinch hitter off the bench.