Athletics starter Chris Bassitt is resting comfortably after being struck in the face by a 100 mph line drive off the bat of White Sox outfielder Brian Goodwin during Tuesday night’s 9-0 loss at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, Ill.
The impact of the ball caused some lacerations to Bassitt’s face, A’s head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta said on Wednesday. Bassitt had roughly 15-16 stitches after being admitted to Rush University Medical Center. The number of stitches might sound significant, but the sutures were of a smaller nature, Paparesta explained. Bassitt is scheduled to undergo surgery next week.
Bassitt’s eye currently is swollen shut, but the swelling has gone down significantly since Tuesday night.
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“All in all he’s in good spirits, doing well,” Paparesta said.
Bassitt himself took to Twitter to give fans an update on Wednesday.
Paparesta said the A's are looking at early next week for Bassitt’s surgery. A consultation is scheduled for Monday with plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Revenaugh, the head facial, plastic and reconstruction surgeon at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
If all goes well, surgery could take place on Tuesday, which would entail going into Bassitt’s face and performing an incision on the outside as well as the inside of his mouth.
Oakland Athletics
“They’re going to repair the broken bones in that space,” Paparesta said.
Paparesta pointed to an area below his eye and cheekbone and said they would put plates in the area and “fix those bones up.” The reasoning for that surgery is due to the fact that the fractured bones in that area did move a little bit, so they’ll need to be moved into a better place.
As far as a timeline is concerned as to when the healing process will take place for these bones, Paparesta said a six-week mark could be the case, but the doctor said they will take a better look once the surgery takes place.
A lot of these scenarios, of course will be determinant upon how the surgery goes and what they see once they go into it.
Miraculously, Bassitt didn’t show any signs of a concussion. He had been seen by a neurosurgeon, an ENT specialist, and an ophthalmologist in addition to the plastic surgeon, and while it was expected he wouldn’t recall every detail, there were no nausea or dizziness side effects, and his CT scan was clear.
For now, it’s all about the facial fractures.
After the successful surgery, Bassitt will need to get back to Oakland eventually, but A’s general manager David Forst said Bassitt mentioned they will not rule anything else out at this point as it pertains to the 2021 All-Star pitching again this season.
“We won’t rule anything out, but we will update his timeline as we have enough information to do so,” Forst said.
Overall, Bassitt’s health is extremely encouraging, and historically speaking, it could have been way worse.
“We’re all incredibly grateful Chris is doing as well as he is today,” Forst said. “It was an awful thing to have to watch. Also for our players and our staff to be there on the field as well, so we’re thinking about everything the team went through last night. Chris had incredible care from the second Nick reached him on the mound to everybody at the stadium and the ambulance, the hospital, we’re very grateful for the care that he got, but also just very aware we’ve frankly -- Chris, and everyone else has been through something pretty traumatic here.
"Our guys did a good job just getting through the game last night, I give Bob and the coaches a lot of credit for getting everybody through that and we’ll sort of move forward as a team today.”
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For now, Bassitt’s family, including his wife Jessica, and his mother and father, will stay with Bassitt in Chicago as long as they need to be there.
The A’s promoted pitcher Paul Blackburn from Triple-A Las Vegas on Wednesday, who will start against the White Sox. The rest of the starting rotation has been pushed back one day, with Cole Irvin scheduled to start on Thursday.