DETROIT — Joakim Soria passed the last hurdle in coming back from his strained oblique.

“Oh yeah. I’m ready to go,” the reliever said after throwing a simulated game Monday. I’m excited to feel better and I’ll try to help this team as much as I can. We did a big step today and hopefully it feels good tomorrow.”

Now, once the Detroit Tigers see how he bounces back from Monday’s exercise, they can figure out when they might be able to bring him back off the disabled list.

“He threw 27 pitches, all of his pitches. He didn’t look like anything was bothering him. He said he felt good afterwards, said he didn’t even get tired. All signs are pointing in the right direction. We just gotta make sure tomorrow he comes in and there’s no issues,” manager Brad Ausmus said.

“He looked good, real good, strong. We just gotta make sure he feels fine tomorrow.”

Once the Tigers do activate Soria — probably not until Wednesday at the earliest, allowing him a day’s rest — the Tigers will get back a big piece at the back end of their bullpen.

A piece they haven’t had since he came out of the game in Toronto on Aug. 9, holding his side, grimacing in pain.

“If he comes back and he feels fine tomorrow and we activate him, we probably still have to be careful in terms of usage, at least initially,” Ausmus said. “But I’d still expect him to be pitching towards the back end of the bullpen.”