One of the Red Sox’s best hitters may be on the verge of returning to the big league lineup.

Willson Contreras will begin a rehab assignment in Portland on Friday, and Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said the hope is he’ll only need one or two games before returning to the majors.

“He wants to get on his feet, he’s been down for a while, just to get on his feet and actually see some pitching, move around at first, maybe get on base,” Tracy said. “He just wants to move around a bit in that setting prior to jumping back in.”

Contreras has been on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain since Aug. 31 after previously battling through the issue for several weeks. He leads the Red Sox with 26 home runs and a .900 OPS over 125 games in his first season in Boston.

Upcoming starters

The Red Sox announced that Sonny Gray will start Friday’s series opener against the Kansas City Royals followed by Ranger Suarez on Saturday and Payton Tolle on Sunday.

Suarez and Tolle’s spots in the rotation have been flipped, which Tracy said was intended to give both additional rest without Suarez having to wait nine days between starts. Instead he’ll get eight days of rest and Tolle will get seven.

“You’re going to have to give him a longer extended period at some point, whether you do it now, the last homestand or going into hopefully the playoffs,” Tracy said. “We just chose to do it now and the slots were based around maximum rest for each of them without giving too much time for Ranger.”

Extra innings

Garrett Crochet (left shoulder inflammation) came out of his Tuesday bullpen well and will throw another on Friday. … Tanner Houck (Tommy John surgery rehab) felt good after averaging 93 mph and topping out at around 95.5 mph in his first rehab start on Tuesday. He is expected to throw 40-45 pitches in his next outing on Friday in Portland. … Ceddanne Rafaela (right quad strain) ran through a full assessment in hopes that he can push some more intense running in the coming days. … Tyron Guerrero (right shoulder inflammation) threw off flat ground again Wednesday and is trending towards live batting practice on Saturday. … Justin Slaten (right elbow inflammation) still hasn’t resumed throwing. … Curtis Mead (fractured left wrist) has resumed catching the ball but still hasn’t started doing any hitting work. … Of the longer-term rehabbers, Zack Kelly (right elbow inflammation) threw live batting practice earlier this week, Kutter Crawford (right flexor irritation) is throwing sides and might be approaching live batting practice, and Masataka Yoshida (left hamstring strain) is walking on a treadmill and remains a long ways off. … Wednesday was team picture day at Fenway Park.