GENEVA, Ill. (BVM) — May 19, 2021.

Vance Worley takes the mound for the American Association of Professional Baseball’s Kane County Cougars. The right-hander tallies four strikeouts over 5.2 scoreless innings in a 3-0 shutout win over the Chicago Dogs. 

It’s not the MLB, it’s not even Triple-A, but Worley is back in baseball. He had just made his first professional start in almost three years. 

Despite the layoff Worley has no shortage of experience. The 33-year-old has pitched for five different MLB teams during a career that has taken him all over the country.

After graduating from McClatchy High School in his hometown of Sacramento, California, the Philadelphia Phillies drafted Worley in the 20th round of the 2005 MLB Draft. However, Worley passed on the opportunity so he could play college ball, pitching three seasons at California State University, Long Beach.

Three years later, the Phillies called Worley’s name again, taking him with the 102nd overall pick in the 2008 MLB Draft.

After spending time developing in the Phillies’ farm system, Worley made his MLB debut in July 2010, but it wasn’t until 2011 when he got his first extended taste of the big leagues. 

Sharing the mound with the likes of Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee, Worley quickly established his presence in the Phillies’ rotation. He recorded a 3.01 ERA over 25 appearances his rookie season, finishing third in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

In 2012, though, Worley ended his sophomore campaign early. He made his final start in a Phillies uniform that August and underwent surgery due to bone chips in his right elbow before the Phillies traded him to the Minnesota Twins the following offseason.

Starting with the Twins in 2013, Worley began a five-year stretch which saw him pitch for four different organizations. He bounced from the majors to the minors and made 110 big-league appearances during that span, both as a starter and a reliever. 

Worley’s most recent MLB appearance came Sept. 27, 2017, pitching 1.2 innings in relief for the Miami Marlins in a 15-9 loss to the Colorado Rockies. That season, he recorded a 6.91 ERA and was never able to settle into a defined role in Miami. The Marlins organization immediately cut him at season’s end. 

“I mean, you look at my career, I’m in the rotation, out of the rotation, back in, and as it went on, it got harder,” Worley said in an interview with The Athletic. “And the game was changing, and who knows with all these teams and all the scandals that are going on right now, who knows if I was getting picked. I don’t know.” 

While the Cincinnati Reds invited Worley to Spring Training in January 2018, he was released again that April before the New York Mets inked him to a minor-league deal. However, Worley made just four starts with the then-Las Vegas 51s, the then-Triple A affiliate of the Mets, before he faced surgery again that June and was released.

Worley had fully recovered from his surgery heading into 2019, but he was not offered an MLB deal and ended up firing his agent. He took the year off so he could take care of his wife, who was recovering from a C-section, and his son.

Then came 2020. 

Still without a major-league deal, the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball signed Worley just days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. But with the eventual cancellation of the season due to virus-related concerns, Worley spent even more time away from the mound. 

Another year gone. No baseball to be played. 

However, with 2021 on the horizon, Worley had an opportunity looming in Geneva, Illinois — 757 miles away from where he began his professional career in Reading, Pennsylvania.

After spending five seasons affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cougars became an independent-league club last December. The team then hired George Tsamis as manager and signed a plethora of players — many of whom had experience competing in the independent leagues — as part of its rebrand.

But only one had the experience of competing in the big leagues. 

Nearly three years since he last took the mound, the Cougars signed Worley April 27. The 6-foot-2 California native had a chance to bring his experience to the independent-league club while getting back into the game himself. 

“Vance has plenty of experience at the highest level,” Tsamis said in a press release. “We are excited to have him in our rotation. He is hungry and wants to get back.”

Through four starts this season, Worley is 1-2 with a 4.38 ERA and 20 strikeouts. Like Worley, Tsamis also has experience pitching in both the independent leagues and the MLB. He appeared in 41 games with the Twins in 1993 before retiring from professional baseball in 1998.

Although he isn’t back in the MLB yet, Worley is rejuvenating his career with the Cougars as a mentor for the team’s young roster. The same pitcher who immediately found success with the Phillies a decade ago is redeeming himself after surgery, his family and the pandemic took him away from the game.