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.
¡°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.¡±