Reese Kaplan -- History of Tommy John Surgery

With the news that ace Jacob deGrom is headed to the injured list, right away people started pushing the panic button regarding the long term implications of what that might mean.  We have heard everything from his elbow was “barking” and can point to a couple of consecutive decided non-Cy Young worthy starts to suggest something could indeed be wrong.

As a minor league deGrom already faced the once dreaded and now-too-commonplace procedure known colloquially as Tommy John Surgery.  Let’s have a brief history lesson about what it means and how it got it’s start.

Back in 1974 pitcher Tommy John had elbow problems that were diagnosed as a torn Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL), the ligament that runs on the inside of the elbow that provides stability to help secure the joint overall.  Dr. Frank Jobe pioneered the procedure to take a tendon from elsewhere in the body to replace the torn UCL.  As scary as the procedure is for a professional pitcher, to a doctor it’s considered fairly minor, done on an outpatient basis, lasting from 60-90 minutes, and the patient is usually sent home the same day. 

Tommy John was the pitcher on whom this procedure was pioneered and after a recuperation period of usually about 18 months.  John underwent the procedure 22 starts into the 1974 season, missed all of 1975 and returned to be an effective pitcher again in 1976 at age 33, pitching for an unbelievable 13 more years before hanging up his cleats.

The list of pitchers who have undergone the procedure is staggering.  Rather than include them all here, instead I will link to a comprehensive (and unfortunate) list of surgical recipients here. 

The one pitcher who does deserve mentioning in any discussion of Tommy John Surgery is Atlanta reliever Jonny Venters.  The hard throwing lefty began his career at age 25 with a bang, providing the Braves with 79 games of 1.95 ERA support in the middle innings, striking out 93 in 83 IP, earning 8^th place in the Rookie of the Year voting.  He followed that up with a sophomore season in which he pitched to a lower ERA, appeared in more games and earned an All Star berth.  The future was so bright…you know how it goes. 

Then Tommy John Surgery came to pay a visit to Mr. Venters not once, not twice but three times!  In his career he has a huge gap from the period of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, but he persevered, returning to the majors first with the Rays and then once again with the Braves to pitch in 50 games in 2018.  Although he pitches for the division rival defending champions, you have to take your hat off to salute Venters’ desire to do the work to make it back to the majors after the medical maladies that derailed half a decade of his prime years.

So before we throw in the towel on the 2019 season or condemn the contract into the pantheon of injury plagued extensions in the past like David Wright and Yoenis Cespedes, take a deep breath and realize that it’s too soon to draw any definitive conclusions and any team as beset by injuries as the Mets have been are bound to have the odds fall in their favor for once.