Ron Gardenhire, recently hired as the bench coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks, has announced that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Gardenhire, 59, said it would be the only time he would talk publicly about the subject this spring.

The longtime Minnesota Twins manager says he received the diagnosis about a week ago after tests in Minnesota and would undergo surgery to remove the prostate gland, probably the second week in April.

He says doctors believe they caught the cancer early and that the surgery would leave him cancer-free.