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Dr. Bill Meyers performed core muscle repair surgery on Justin Verlander Thursday morning in Philadelphia, the team announced. Verlander will need six weeks of rehab and be re-evaluated at that time. He apparently suffered the injury at the end of December while performing conditioning, though no addition details were provided by the team.
"We fully anticipate Justin to participate in spring training and be in a position to compete at the beginning of the 2014 season," said Tigers president and general manager David Dombrowski said in a release.
Meyers, you may recall, also performed core muscle repair surgery on Miguel Cabrera in October. Cabrera was expected to return in time for spring training and there have been no updates since that time.
Verlander is coming off his worst season since 2008, finishing the year with a 3.46 ERA (which still put him about 21 percent better than average, per ERA+). He went 13-12 in 34 starts with 217 strikeouts in 218 innings.