Victor Martinez should still be fine for most of the 2015 season.
Victor Martinez should still be fine for most of the 2015 season. (USATSI)

The Tigers announced Thursday that designated hitter Victor Martinez tore the medial meniscus in his left knee last week and he'll need surgery next week from the esteemed Dr. James Andrews.

And the overreactions are already streaming in via the good ol' Internet. I've already seen some people speculate that he won't be back until May and many have already given up hope on Martinez playing much in April. After all, Martinez is 36 years old, just signed a four-year, $68 million deal this offseason to stay in Detroit and missed all of 2012 with a left knee injury.

Of course, let us realize that this is "only" a meniscus injury. Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski, who has surely been in contact with Dr. Andrews, doesn't seem ready to panic ...

... nor should he be.

Don't take my word for it. I asked an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in non-operative and surgical management of knee problems at the Shelbourne Knee Center in Indianapolis.

"If the meniscus is repaired, or stitched back together, the knee is often placed in a brace and the patient must be on crutches without putting weight on the knee for several weeks," said Dr. Rodney Benner. "This, obviously, lengthens the time to return to competition from a few weeks to a few months."

"If the meniscus cannot be repaired, the damaged meniscus tissue is removed back to a rim of normal, functioning meniscus. This speeds the process of return to competition to 4-6 weeks. Given his age and history of prior ACL surgery, my guess is that the meniscus is likely degenerative and will not be amenable to repair. However, that decision will be made at the time of surgery."

Basically, the most likely bet is Martinez has the meniscus removed and has a 4-6 week recovery timetable. The past injury does complicate matters, though.

"We have to also remember that Victor Martinez has a history with this knee, namely an ACL reconstruction in 2012 and a microfracture surgery in that same year," Dr. Benner said. "There is always the possibility that he could have continued swelling, stiffness, or weakness that develop after his surgery, which could lengthen his recovery time or decrease his effectiveness once he gets back."

So there's obviously some downside. And as far as the plans of the Tigers' staff to use him behind the plate some this coming season, that's probably out the window.

"Medial meniscus tears are pretty uncommon at his age," said Dr. Benner. "However, his history of catching definitely contributes to degeneration of his medial meniscus. Competitive wrestlers and baseball catchers are two specific athletic circumstances where medial meniscus tears are more common."

Still, Martinez is a finely tuned athlete and already bounced back in a big way from a serious knee injury. This injury isn't nearly as serious, even with the mitigating circumstance of his history.

Martinez was the runner-up in AL MVP voting last season when he hit .335/.409/.565 with 33 doubles, 32 homers and 103 RBI. Given his importance to the lineup, seeing him undergo surgery in February is certainly less than ideal.

"With a history of both ACL reconstruction and microfracture surgery, clearly this knee is not normal to begin with. Adding another injury to the mix definitely adds to the cumulative damage that this knee has undergone," Dr. Benner said.

If Martinez does miss much time, the Tigers can start all four outfielders -- Anthony Gose, Rajai Davis, J.D. Martinez and Yoenis Cespedes -- with one of them serving as the DH. In all likelihood, though, there won't be significant impact to the 2015 season coming from this injury.

"Patients usually do very well with knee arthroscopy for meniscus tears, and I believe that he will make a speedy recovery and return to competition around 6 weeks from surgery," Dr. Benner concluded.

Martinez is set to have the surgery next week. Six weeks from then gets us to the week of March 23. The Tigers don't open the season until two weeks after that (April 6). He'll need to get up to game speed, sure, and we already discussed the possibility of setbacks due to injury history. Even if the Tigers are very conservative and he takes longer than is to be expected with this type of injury, we're only looking at him missing a week or two into the regular season.

The bottom line is that expecting Martinez to need upwards of 10-14 weeks to recover is a massive overreaction.