They are trickling back.
Rumors at first of long tosses and side sessions and simulated games gave way to whispers about radar gun readings and loose timetables. Now, suddenly, reports are more concrete, less vague. That group curtailed by what felt like a Tommy John surgery epidemic that struck between spring training 2014 and the first few months of the regular season has re-appeared on the baseball radar.
More defined schedules now exist in the final laps of rehab. We can now imagine those returning having an impact on the playoff race.
This is not a perfect science, of course.