It’s not actually all that clear how many pitchers have had Tommy John surgery three or more times. According to some sources, Jose Rijo counts. According to some sources, Jason Isringhausen counts. Baseball Reference includes Scott Williamson, Jarrod Parker, Josh Johnson, and Chad Fox. On the other hand, we have the list provided by Jon Roegele. Among the repeats, there’s only one three-time survivor. Anthony Castrovince provides a partial explanation.

How many pitchers have made it back to the big leagues after their third Tommy John? Technically, none. Though Jose Rijo and Jason Isringhausen are often cited to have had at least three Tommy Johns apiece, Jon Roegele’s oft-cited Tommy John database does not recognize either pitcher as a three-time recipient of the surgery, because, for each guy, at least one of the surgeries addressed a flexor tendon tear, not a UCL tear.

I can’t speak to the exact history of the procedure. I can’t tell you exactly how many pitchers have had it three times. I can tell you that, whatever the answer is, it’s an absurdly low number. It’s a number that includes Jonny Venters. Not only has Venters been through Tommy John three times; more recently, he’s been through another elbow operation. Right now, he’s in camp with the Rays. Just yesterday, he pitched. And when he pitched on February 25 against the Twins, it was his first spring action since 2013.

When I first saw that Venters was pitching for a job, I got excited, and I wanted to write. I thought it would be somewhat self-explanatory, but then I realized, wait, maybe people forgot about Venters. Or maybe people never knew Venters in the first place. Granted, when Venters was healthy with the Braves, he was hard to miss, and, granted, the game of baseball might not be picking up all that many new fans. But just in case you don’t remember or know what Venters was like when he first came up, allow me to summarize.

Looking at all pitchers since 2002 — which is as far back as we have data — Venters owns the highest career grounder rate in baseball. While he was fine in 2012, he was also beginning to hurt. His first two seasons marked his prime, in 2010 and 2011, and in the latter season he made the All-Star Game as a non-closer. Between those seasons, Venters pitched more than nearly any other reliever. He ran the highest ground-ball rate by a laughable eight percentage points. He posted baseball’s lowest contact rate. He had the second-lowest zone rate. He had the fourth-lowest adjusted ERA, because he ran one of the league’s very lowest hard-hit rates. Jonny Venters was a lefty reliever with velocity and a breaking ball, and as a complement to Craig Kimbrel, he was completely unfair. I don’t know if it was Venters who made the two-seamer sexy, but he made it look as good as anyone could.

To put it more simply, I guess, you could say that Jonny Venters was Zach Britton before Zach Britton was Zach Britton. That’s the pitcher the Braves had, in front of one of the most dominant closers of his era. There are a lot of good relievers now, all over the place, but Venters emerged to be something deeply valuable before baseball’s bullpen obsession grew so extreme.

The first Tommy John wasn’t so bad. It was 2005. Venters was young, and newly drafted. Any operation is a big deal, sure, and Tommy John is followed by a demanding and long-term rehab, but Venters knew he could bounce back, just like so many other pitchers had done. Having ligament-replacement surgery is almost like a rite of passage. Even if it’s not a formality, it’s not a career-killer. Pitchers all over are aware they could get hurt with the very next pitch. It’s part of it. You get better, and you move on.

The second Tommy John also wasn’t so bad. It was 2013. As Venters said to Castrovince, he figured he’d be fine, since he had no problems the first time around. And that’s sensible enough. Venters had experienced only his own history. In truth, requiring a second Tommy John is considerably worse than only needing it once. Still, there are success stories. Pitchers have made it all the way back from a pair of UCL replacements. Venters’ story had yet to take its most dismal turn.

The third Tommy John was bad. It was 2014. Venters felt discomfort early in his first live batting-practice session. That was that. Under the knife. The Braves released Venters in November. The Rays picked him up the following March. It was a two-year contract, because Venters wasn’t expected to be able to pitch in year one. We’ve seen a few of these contracts. Drew Smyly recently signed one. Michael Pineda recently signed one. But Venters was trying to come back from something more intense. The Rays were giving him a shot to return from surgery No. 3. Venters ultimately required a surgery No. 4.

I have to excerpt from Castrovince’s article again. You should read the entire thing, because Castrovince and Venters actually got to talk. Here’s another link to it. Anyway, Venters was pitching in 2016. He’d made a few appearances, and then, there was elbow pain. The fear was that Venters would require a fourth Tommy John. He didn’t, but it’s complicated.

But as unlucky as he was, Venters was fortunate in the sense that his ligament graph had, according to an evaluation from Dr. Neal ElAttrache, survived this latest injury unscathed. The way Dr. ElAttrache explains it, a person is born with a ligament layer and a tendon layer in his or her elbow, with separate stresses and strains of those two layers. For Tommy John recipients, the two layers scar together, meaning stress and strain of one layer affects the other. But in Venters’ elbow, the doctor was able to clearly see that the tendon had split underneath the attachment site to the bone.

It was taken as good news, wrapped within bad news. Venters needed more surgery, and said surgery would come with an extended rehab, but it wasn’t going to be Tommy John again, and the rehab would be shorter. There’s not a long history of this operation being performed on pitchers, but Venters was willing to give it a shot. He was still only 31 years old. The Rays re-signed him for 2017. He got back on a mound in a competitive game on June 27. Venters subsequently pitched at nearly every level of the minors.

In that spring game on February 25, Venters touched 92 miles per hour. In his appearance yesterday, Venters got up to 91 or so, but the radar readings showed a lot of 88s and 89s. Given that Venters used to blow mid-90s with relative ease, it’s clear that velocity is gone, and it’s almost certainly not coming back. But what’s important is that Venters says his arm feels good. It’s not as if he’s in the clear — it’s not as if he’ll ever be in the clear — but he feels strong, feels healthy. He feels the way you’d want him to feel, if he were any other pitcher in camp. And as easy as it might be to fret about lost miles per hour, Venters pitched well just last summer.

On no occasion in the minors did the Rays have Venters pitch on back-to-back days. I don’t think I need to explain why that is. Venters, though, got up to 23.2 total innings, and he allowed just six runs, while recording 29 strikeouts. Out of all the balls in play, two-thirds remained on the ground. Squint at the numbers and you can see that Jonny Venters could still pitch like Jonny Venters. The Rays saw enough to re-sign him again, and not just because he’s inspirational. Even though Venters is as obvious a health risk as there is in the game, he has a real opportunity to get back to the majors. The Rays’ whole pitching staff is somewhat fluid, and they’re going to make heavy use of the bullpen. It’s not a bullpen with many sure things. Venters’ most recent major-league outing was the last game played by Chipper Jones. It was the wild-card game with the Andrelton Simmons infield fly. Venters would probably like to finish on a slightly different note, and he’s going to have the opportunity. In fact, he already has it.