Orioles’ Markakis has surgery

Remember in the season finale last year when Nick Markakis left the game towards the end with a bruised pelvis? He had been playing with it for quite some time after hurting it earlier in the month. At the time, most people kind of shrugged that off given that the season was over and everyone would have plenty of time to heal in the coming months. At this point I’m not so sure of that anymore.

As it turned out Markakis had torn a muscle in his stomach, which was surgically repaired yesterday…YESTERDAY! Spring training games are two short months away. Manager Buck Showalter is going to slowly ease Markakis into exhibition games, but he’ll probably be out for the first week or two of spring training (the games that is). The injury has prevented Markakis from working out for much of the off season to this point. When he never fully healed he got an MRI which revealed the tear. I suppose my question is why this wasn’t done sooner, however I digress.

This is the same surgery that Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals had some time back, and he missed six weeks. Markakis did say that he was expecting to be ready and at 100% on Opening Day in Baltimore. However for a team that’s been ravaged by injuries the past couple of years, this is a huge concern. Remember two years ago when Brian Roberts was having “a few back issues?” You can’t compare these two things, however I suppose what I’m saying is that the Orioles’ luck has seemed to be just this type of thing happening. Perhaps there was a bit more than meets the eye in Dan Duquette looking for outfield depth.

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