More on Werth's surgery and its impact on the Nationals (surgery a success)

In case you missed the news late yesterday afternoon, Jayson Werth will have surgery to repair the AC joint in his right shoulder today, a procedure that is expected to sideline the Nationals outfielder for two to three months.

Werth will have the surgery at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn.

The procedure, similar to the one Ryan Zimmerman underwent in October 2012, will force Werth to miss at least the first few weeks of spring training, and could leave his status for opening day in question.

Given that timetable, and assuming he knew he would have to go under the knife at some point, many fans have been asking why Werth didn't go ahead and have the surgery earlier in the offseason. The answer there is that he didn't know that surgery would definitely be needed.

Injuries to the AC joint can sometimes be effectively managed with rest and treatment, and that's the way Werth was hoping to attack the shoulder injury this offseason. Players never want to undergo surgery if they don't have to, because there are no guarantees that the surgery will totally repair the damage or that the player will be able to return to 100 percent strength after the procedure. Even minimally invasive surgery is still a risk to an athlete, who depends on his body.

But after giving the rest and treatment strategy a try, it became clear surgery would be the only way Werth's shoulder would return to full strength. Hence the decision now to have the procedure.

As far as how this impacts the Nats over the next few months, Werth's surgery doesn't necessarily force general manager Mike Rizzo to add another proven outfielder in a trade or free agent signing.

Yes, a deal for the Rays' Ben Zobrist would now make even more sense, as Zobrist not only is a solid second baseman and could play there every day, but also has loads of experience in the outfield and could fill in for Werth there, as well. FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reports, however, that the Nats are not "actively pursuing" Zobrist as of right now, feeling that Tampa Bay's asking price is too high.

A major league deal for one of the remaining free agent outfielders - Nori Aoki, Colby Rasmus or Ichiro Suzuki, for example - doesn't seem to make much sense for the Nats, given they have minimal playing time to offer in the outfield when Werth, Bryce Harper and Denard Span are all healthy. They also have Nate McLouth under contract this season, and will pay him $5 million to serve as a reserve outfielder, and Kevin Frandsen will return to provide outfield depth.

Why guarantee a free agent a big league contract and the money that comes with it, if you might not have a need for that player past mid-April?

A minor league deal for an experienced outfielder such as Nate Schierholtz, who was with the Nats for the last five weeks of the 2014 regular season and the National League Division Series, might be a better fit. Such a deal would allow Schierholtz to compete for a job and provide insurance if Werth or McLouth are slow to recover from their shoulder surgeries (McLouth's came in mid-August to repair a torn right labrum). Schierholtz would also be able to showcase himself for the other 29 big league teams, and even if there isn't a fit with the Nats, he could land a big league job elsewhere.

Those are the outside options. The inside options are some combination of McLouth, Michael A. Taylor, Frandsen and Tyler Moore in left.

If McLouth is healthy, this is the reason the Nats signed him last offseason - to slide in should one of the Nats' starting outfielders go down. Taylor has loads of upside and could be a nice fill-in, as well, and Frandsen and Moore both have experience playing left for the Nats.

Werth might very well recover from his surgery quickly and be ready to go come opening day. But even if he isn't, and needs a week or two to get back to speed, the Nats could have their replacements already lined up.

Update: The Nationals just tweeted an update on Werth's surgery, calling the procedure performed at the Mayo Clinic "successful" and noting that no structural abnormalities were found in his right shoulder.