Bassitt undergoes successful facial surgery

OAKLAND -- Before the A’s would even consider planning a possible timeline for Chris Bassitt’s return to the mound, they first wanted to ensure his complicated surgery went through without issue. On Tuesday, they received positive news on that front.

The A’s announced that Bassitt underwent successful facial surgery on Tuesday morning in Chicago at the Rush Medical Center, where he’s remained under the care of doctors since being hit in the face by a line drive on Aug. 17. The procedure, which was performed by Dr. Peter Revenaugh, stabilized and plated Bassitt’s tripod fracture with good fixation and debrided other small fractured bones that were caused by the incident.

"That is great news,” manager Bob Melvin said. “All the little nuanced things that we knew about [the surgery] went well. They took out fragments and the whole bit. I think it went exceptionally well, and everybody feels great about that.”

Bassitt is expected to remain in recovery at Rush Medical Center anywhere from 48-72 hours. After that, the A’s anticipate the All-Star right-hander returning to the Bay Area later this week to continue his rehab.

While the A’s are operating under the assumption that Bassitt will not return to the mound this season, they still are not completely ruling out the possibility. That is largely because of Bassitt’s attitude and determination that has been shown throughout this whole situation -- he returned to the A’s hotel just a couple of days after the incident for a surprise pregame pep talk that led to a win later that day.

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“I don’t think Chris thinks his season is over, by any stretch,” Melvin said. “Once he gets through the surgery, it is on his mind to get back this season.”