According to some updates that just came across Twitter from Dan Connolly at the Baltimore Sun, Nick Markakis had surgery in Philadelphia yesterday "to repair a torn rectus abdominis muscle". We can all think of at least one person on Camden Chat who was probably unaware that Markakis had a rectus abdominis muscle at all. The muscle is the one that in layman's terms, and with a decent workout program, will form the "six pack" abs.
There was no indication from Connolly how the muscle tear occurred or how long it had been afflicting Markakis. Last we heard about Nick's health was right after he won his Gold Glove a couple of months ago and he told MLB.com's Brittany Ghiroli that he was "75 percent healed" from the bruised pelvis bone that he sustained in mid-September, but there's no mention of a connection between that injury and this surgery. Now, according to Connolly, Markakis is "hopeful he will be ready by Opening Day", and also that he will be having a lighter workload in spring training.
The news of this surgery will be particularly disappointing to those who were hoping that Markakis would be able to work on continuing to develop power during this offseason, because Connolly also reports that Markakis "has not been able to work out this offseason due to injury."
EDIT: Connolly adds that Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals "had the same type of surgery, missed six weeks and wasn't 100% initially". For Markakis, there will be three weeks where he does nothing and six weeks before he resumes baseball activities. That pushes us to mid-February, and no idea how close he will be to 100% at that time.