Ryan Zimmerman scheduled for surgery, out six more weeks

The Washington Nationals finally received the definitive answers they have been seeking on Ryan Zimmerman's abdominal injury since he suffered it on April 9th in New York.

According to a Nationals press release on Saturday (via Federal Baseball):

"Ryan Zimmerman saw Dr. Bill Meyers in Philly on Friday and was diagnosed with an abdominal tear (isolated tear of rectus)...he will have surgery Tuesday morning in Philly, performed by Dr. Meyers... Zim is expected to miss six weeks."

Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal originally reported the surgery could keep Zimmerman out until the all-star break, so we'll have to see it Washington's six week timetable is on the optimistic side.

Zimmerman injured his abdomen on an unnecessarily aggressive head first slide in to second base. It started as a day-to-day diagnosis, but soon landed him on the DL. Zimmerman had attempted to resume simple baseball activities earlier this week, but his body didn't respond well, prompting the visit to the specialist in Philadelphia.

Watch Zimmerman's injury

When are these guys going to learn to knock off the head first slides? That's what put Josh Hamilton on the shelf for two months with a broken arm. That's how Rafael Furcal broke his thumb. And in the case of Yunel Escobar, it nearly put his lights out.

Feet first is the way to go.

Anyway, Zimmerman's extended absence keeps the full load of Washington's offense on the shoulders of Jayson Werth for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, Jerry Hairston and Alex Cora continue sharing duties at third base. Yeah, I don't think you need to understand sabermetrics to recognize the drop off in production there.

Hurry back, Ryan. Hurry back.

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