SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego Padres manager Bob Melvin had prostate surgery Wednesday.
The team announced Melvin’s surgery during its 7-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs. It had no further details and said it likely won’t have any updates until next week.
Melvin said Tuesday that he didn’t think he had cancer, but the doctors wouldn’t know until the surgery. He said he hoped to miss only the first six games of the team’s forthcoming nine-game road trip, which starts Friday night in Atlanta and continues through Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Bench coach Ryan Christenson took over as interim manager on Tuesday night, when the Padres beat the Cubs 5-4.
Melvin was hired away from Oakland on Nov. 1. He said he had been feeling various symptoms since the team returned from a road trip a week ago.
Christenson also filled in for Melvin last Thursday night and was set for Monday night, but then Melvin felt well enough to be in the dugout. The Padres said then that Melvin had a gastrointestinal issue.
Christenson, a former big leaguer, came with Melvin from Oakland, where he was bench coach the last four seasons.
“He’s a future manager waiting to happen,” Melvin said. “You can ask any of these guys how impactful he is to them in any number of roles. He’s been with me for quite a while now and he is going to manage at some point in time. We look at the game similarly and he’s going to manage it basically kind of the way I do. We’ve been together long enough where he shouldn’t miss a beat.”
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