A god damn shame: All-Star pitcher Jonny Venters blows out his pitching elbow for a fourth time, requiring a fourth Tommy John surgery or face retirement.
I haven’t followed baseball too fervently all season, but one thing that I have been keeping tabs on all season was the progress of Jonny Venters. Between 2010 and 2012, he was pretty much one of the best relief pitchers in all of baseball pitching for the Braves, and I was a super fan of this guy with a ridiculous power sinker from the left side, making All-Star sluggers look pedestrian and notching strikeouts and delivering in the clutch as easily as a mathematician reciting the times tables.
But in 2012, the dominance ride came to a crashing halt as Venters tore his UCL which is to say blowing out the elbow, which means the three letters that no professional athlete wants to ever hear: TJS, Tommy John Surgery. This would be the second time in Venters’ career that he would undergo the surgery, as he had his first one while climbing up the Braves’ minor league system.
TJS’s are no joke, since the rough summary is that the rehabilitation process usually requires months of painstakingly droll and monotonous rehab before actual strength and muscle training can even begin. The average timeline of TJS rehab ranges anywhere from 12-18 months, so it’s not only is it an invasive surgery, it removes players from the game for a lengthy time, chewing away at their already limited playing careers’ clocks and hampering earning potential.
