Heard this on 610 WIP on my way home from lunch this afternoon and I have seen numerous Phillies blogs touch on the subject. Chase Utley is going to have surgery on his hip and will be out of action for four to six months.

Six months is a worst case scenario, bringing him back in May. I would assume that Utley will have the mentality and work ethic to get back in shape in time to not miss any regular season action. If the hip was the reason his performance dipped in the second half of the season last year than I am perfectly fine with him taking all the time he needs to get back healthy. Missing spring training would not be a total loss for me when it comes to Utley.

Last season Utley got off to a monster start and seemed to seal up the NL MVP award by the end of April. Of course when he trailed off there was some concern about him at the plate but he never missed any time and still played some fine defense. Utley had a pretty good post season to ease some of the offensive concerns, but if his hip is still bothering him then he needs to get it taken care of.

In related news third baseman Pedro Feliz will have some back surgery done. He will need eight to twelve weeks of rehab done so Feliz should be fine for spring training. No major concerns with Feliz it seems.