Chase Utley will Need Surgery and Could be Out Until June

    The Phillies lineup just took a major hit as it has been determined that Chase Utley will need to go under the knife to assess and repair any damage to his injured hip.  The injury plaqued the second baseman for a significant part of the second half of the season and undoubtedly hurt his production.  The timetable for his return is a bit sketchy.  If all goes well he should be able to get on the field sometime around Spring Training.  But returning to feel health and shaking off the rust is expected to leave him out until April at the earliest.  It would not be surprising if his hip took until June to recover fully enough for him to hit the field.

    There is not too much reason to panic if history holds true.  Usually when one of the big three (Rollins, Utley, Howard) go down the other two get hot to make up for it.  The problem is that without Burrell's bat to support them, Rollins and Howard may have a harder time picking up for Utley (Burrell frequently stepped up during injuries to other players as well).  The front office has not made it completely clear what they will do to try and replace Utley, but speculation is that they may try to go after Tadihito Iguchi or Nick Punto, both players who have spent time with the Phils in the past.  Another option would be to move Jason Donald from shortstop to second base and see what he can do.  Right now Donald is tearing up  the Arizona Fall League and getting work at third base to be a potential replacement for Pedro Feliz when his contract runs out at the end of next season.  Despite his recent success, most scouts still project Donald as a solid utility guy in the majors.  While his bat is good, it is considered to lack the pop (in the eyes of most scouts) to be a legitimate power threat for a corner infield (but right now it wouldn't take much pop to beat out Feliz in terms of production).  Having second base open up temporarily may be the perfect opportunity for the Phillies organization to see whether this prospect has a chance to be as good as he has shown so far, or if he is just the utility infielder that scouts are projecting him to be.

    Overall, the Phillies should be able to handle Utley's surgery without panicking, but spending even a little bit on a free agent second baseman could hurt their ability to make a move elsewhere.  Either way, this should not be too big of a priority since the team only needs a short term fix.