Faith Restored: Victor Martinez out only 4-6 weeks

All the doom and gloom the national media was painting about a Victor Martinez-less Detroit Tigers was all for naught as the veteran designated hitter received the “best case” in his surgery this afternoon.

The Detroit Tigers provided a statement shortly after 3 p.m. today:

Victor Martinez today underwent successful medial menisectomy surgery of the left knee. The surgery was performed by Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Florida.Martinez will begin rehabilitation immediately and will resume full activity in 4-6 weeks.“We are very happy the surgery went well and that Victor will be ready to compete for the start of the 2015 season,” said Tigers’ President, CEO and General Manager, David Dombrowski.

It appears that Dr. Andrews only needed to repair the cartilage instead of replacing it. Had a replacement been needed, V-Mart likely would have been out until the All-Star break.

It is also encouraging that V-Mart is cleared to begin rehab immediately instead of having to be off his feet for a number of weeks or months which puts a 4-6 week window as a very realistic goal. Four weeks puts us into the second week of Spring Training; six weeks put us in the final week of Grapefruit League action.

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If Martinez has no setbacks (fingers crossed) between now and then, he will likely be in the Detroit Tigers’ Opening Day lineup when they face the Minnesota Twins at Comerica Park in 53 days.

Given Martinez’s age (36), it may take him longer than that 4-6 week window, but Victor had surprised us in the past and other major leaguers with similar surgeries have come back before that window.

With this positive prognosis, don’t expect the Tigers to make any key trades leading up to Spring Training.

The next big day coming up for the Tigers is in about a week when Miguel Cabrera will meet with doctors and a timetable for his return will likely be set.

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