Worth watching baseball again: relief pitcher Jonny Venters continuing journey back to the big leagues, pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays’ Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs
Jonny Venters is one of my favorite pitchers to watch, like ever. Formerly a relief ace on the Braves, I enjoyed his ascent from AAA to the majors and watched him for the better part of three seasons, make hitters look absolutely foolish with a mega-power sinker thrown from the left hand and often at speeds in excess of 96 mph.
He was derailed when he blew out his elbow, requiring the dreaded Tommy John surgery that salvages careers, but effectively knocks guys out of action for at least a year. To make matters worse, upon the return trail, something went horribly awry and he ended up blowing out his elbow again, requiring a second Tommy John surgery before he even made it back up to the majors. So back under the knife he went, and another year lost to surgery and rehabilitation.
I actually watched Jonny Venters practice throwing again in the spring time of 2014, when I made a trip down to Orlando to watch some Spring Training baseball. He was on a distant backfield of the Disney Wide World of Sports facility, practicing long toss with a catcher I couldn’t identify. I was happy to see that he was back to performing baseball actions again, and had high hopes that the old Jonny Venters would be back to bolster the Braves’ bullpen.
But because life can sometimes be a harsh and cruel mistress, before the season even started, somehow Jonny Venters blew out his elbow a horrific third time. Once again, he would need Tommy John surgery, and be knocked out of the third consecutive season. To nobody’s surprise, by this point, the Braves had no choice but to release him, considering he was very much damaged goods, and unintentionally was a drain on payroll.
The Tampa Bay Rays picked Venters up the following season, fully knowing that he wouldn’t be ready to go until mid-season. And when mid-season arrived, Venters began his slow and deliberate march back to the major leagues, at first playing in extended spring training, and then showing up to Port Charlotte to begin live rehab competition. In his first appearance back, he was hitting 93-94 mph on the radar gun, and things were feeling well. The numbers weren’t so much important at this point as much as it was Jonny Venters getting back onto a live mound and pitching to live hitters again.
It’s often said that bad things happen to good people, and just when it seemed like nothing worse could happen to Jonny Venters, an unfortunate familiar feeling emerged in the midst of his fifth appearance. For the unprecedented fourth time, Jonny Venters blew out his elbow and was put back on the shelf.
Several players in the past have had blown out their elbows three times, but vastly less have done such a fourth. By now, there were less than five documented cases where a player didn’t call it quits and declare retirement, and I had grave concerns that this would be Jonny Venters’ swan song after a fourth and frustrating elbow injury.
For weeks after the diagnosis, I had kept a Google alert set for Jonny Venters, because I was genuinely curious to know if he was going to solder forward and continue his quest to get back to the majors, or if would have boiled over and understandably, retired at this point. Maybe it’s because Google isn’t good at alerts, or maybe it’s because few people care about frequently injured relief pitchers, or perhaps a combination of both, I heard nothing about Jonny’s fate, until the following Spring Training, where I saw a snippet about how the Rays re-signed Jonny Venters to a minor league deal.
Then it was quiet again until recently, when I caught wind of Jonny Venters showing back up onto the field, first at the Rays’ rookie facility, and now back at Port Charlotte, the place where things went awry a year prior. Knock on wood, but so far, so good, and Jonny Venters has already exceeded the prior year’s appearance and innings count.
And in today’s MLB environment, where teams and contenders are all about finding effective relief pitching in the later months of the season, Jonny Venters truly does have an opportunity to become one of the bigger feel-good stories of the season, if he continues to progress well. Undoubtedly, as long as the Rays are in striking distance, of at least one of the two Wild Cards, Venters will get the call and be summoned back up to the Major Leagues.
After Andrew Miller made all the headlines last year, as the lefty with the wipeout slider and mid-90s velocity that showed up in the stretch run, and Brad Hand being the poor man’s imitation of the previous year’s Miller, Jonny Venters does indeed have a good chance to be an impact reliever in the stretch run for the Rays.
And if Jonny Venters gets the call to the big leagues, I have all the reason to start making time to watch some Rays games, and hoping to see one of my favorite pitchers ever hopefully make some more major league hitters look silly all over again.
