So today I started a new gig at the SB Nation MLB news desk. It’s just another part-time writing job to add to my ever building portfolio of part time writing gigs, but as serendipity would have it, my second assignment was to write about Justin Verlander’s surgery. WAIT, WHAT?!

Those are not words I knew could go together. Justin Verlander + Surgery? That doesn’t seem right, but here we are. It’s a core muscle tear, a lot like Cabrera’s and it requires about six weeks of rehab before being evaluated. Dombrowski expects Verlander to participate in Spring Training and they hope he’ll be ready to make his seventh Opening Day start.

Verlander has been crazy durable – seven straight 200+ inning seasons – and has never even thought about going to on the DL. I’m not sure he would even know what to do. Is it an actual list that he has to sign?

The tone from Verlander and the Tigers is positive, but anytime a player goes under the knife you worry and Verlander has 6 years and $160 million left on his contract, so it’s important that he comes back healthy. We’ll know more about how this will affect the team in a few weeks but the Tigers are now down to four healthy starters and Verlander. Six weeks ago they had six above average starters. Things change quickly.

It’s always the opinion of New English D not to panic, but this is a panicky type announcement. Also, why did he wait until now to have the surgery. Don’t think about it too much or you’ll start to panic. I told you not to panic.