Hunter Greene faces familiar Tommy John road with an example of success beside him

CINCINNATI — During the Cincinnati Reds’ last homestand, reliever Tejay Antone placed a hardback copy of his book, “The Tommy John Protocol,” on the chairs of each and every one of his teammates and coaches.

It was a gesture of goodwill, but since then, two teammates have undergone elbow surgeries: right-hander Hunter Greene and outfielder Blake Dunn.

Greene underwent his second Tommy John surgery Wednesday and could miss the 2027 season.

The success rate of players returning from a second Tommy John is not as high as those who have the procedure once, but the road back isn’t impossible. Greene doesn’t have to look farther than across the clubhouse at Great American Ball Park, where Antone’s locker resides.

In the unlikely event Greene didn’t know that Antone was there for him, the 32-year-old reached out to Greene this week.

“It’s not fun when you just get the news and you have to (undergo surgery) right off the bat and you’re in a really dark and not fun spot,” Antone said. “You want to be helping the team, and you’re not. You’re just broken. So I just reached out to him with some words of encouragement.”

Most big-league clubhouses are littered with guys who bear an inches-long scar on the inside of their throwing elbow, signifying their membership in the ever-expanding club of players who have had the surgery first performed by Dr. Frank Jobe on John in 1974. Antone joined the club as a minor leaguer in 2017, the year the Reds took Greene with the second pick in the draft out of a California high school.

Greene’s membership came in 2019, missing all of that season before he made his big-league debut in 2022. Antone, who debuted in 2020, underwent his second Tommy John surgery in 2021 and returned in 2023. Antone went under the knife for another revision of his elbow surgery in 2024.

Antone wrote his book while he was rehabbing from the third surgery on his elbow, in part to fill time, but also as a way to let it be known that not only is Tommy John surgery not a career-ending procedure, but also that a second or third operation doesn’t have to be one, either.

“There was no manual out there for me or for anyone,” said Antone, who is also having the book translated into Spanish. “Everyone has their own way of doing it. Every team has their own philosophies around it. I am not even saying my philosophy is the best, but I just wanted to provide something for even just high school kids, college kids that maybe don’t have the best direction of how they’re going to do it or the approach they’re going to take.”

Being a pitcher such as Greene, who has already had the surgery, presents its own set of challenges, Antone said.

“As an athlete, having gone through something like that before, you feel immediately like, ‘Oh, I’ll be able to do this one easier,’ or ‘I’ll be able to do it quicker,’” Antone said. “And it’s almost the opposite case, where you have to really take your time and just really slow down even more than you want to.”

Greene has been on the injured list in each of his five big-league seasons and started this season on the IL after March surgery to remove loose bodies from his right elbow. That surgery, like both of his Tommy John surgeries, was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. Greene will remain in Los Angeles for his first postoperative checkup with ElAttrache, then transfer his rehab to the Reds’ facility in Goodyear, Ariz., which Antone calls “home of the 115-degree summer.”

Antone’s experiences with Greene rehabbing at the same time give him confidence that Greene has as good a shot as anyone to come back after a second surgery just as strong as he was.

“He’s a workaholic — he loves showing up every day on time, doing the things that matter,” Antone said. “Honestly, anyone who plays at this level knows how to do that. That’s one of the foundations of returning from anything. I have all the hopes that Hunter’s going to return better than he was before.”