Per John Blake on Twitter, Rangers first baseman Mitch Moreland has undergone surgery on his right wrist, and is expected to miss 8 to 12 weeks as a result.
A couple of interesting angles on this. First of all, this postseason, the Rangers have emphasized that they are happy with Mitch Moreland, that his disappointing second half was because of his wrist problem, and that they plan on him being the starter at first base in 2012. The fact that he needed surgery does seem drive home that this was a rather significant issue.
If Moreland is going to miss 8-12 weeks, that puts him on pace to be ready at around the time position players report for spring training. Nevertheless, you'd have to think that likely puts him behind in terms of schedule, since it sounds like he won't have been swinging a bat or doing "baseball activities" during the offseason. That may have been normal for players 30-40 years ago, but I don't think that's the case now.
So it may be the Rangers will need to be a little more aggressive in finding an insurance policy for first base this spring.