The Marlins have a minor-league deal in place with reliever Pat Venditte, per MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link). It includes an invitation to the MLB side of Spring Training.
Venditte, 34, has thrown only 68 MLB innings to this point of his career. But as journeyman middle relievers go, he’s as interesting as they come. Venditte is a true unicorn of the game: a switch-pitcher who utilizes a customized glove to change his throwing hand depending upon the batter.
Things didn’t work out last year with the Giants, as Venditte received only two appearances in the bigs. But he did work to a 2.85 ERA in 47 1/3 innings at Triple-A, with a healthy combination of 11.2 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9.
If there are no other pitchers left to sign, then I guess he is the right man for the job!
From what I hear, Venditte is not all right. I’d love to see him turn it around.
Correct, he’s not all right. Sometimes he’s left.
Hahaha!!!!
Lengthy career, I wonder what he’s got left
Maybe he can right the ship.
Or the left man
He’s underrated. Just look at his (AAA) stats the last 2 years.
I love the novelty of a switch pitcher but his MLB stats just aren’t that good unfortunately.
He hasn’t had a lot of exposure to big league pitching and he’s been solid at the AAA level. I’d go out on a limb and say he would have been productive in a couple of seasons had he been given a chance over his career.
I wonder if he has anything left in the tank. If so, he’ll be able to right the ship.
That’s the cool thing about Venditte, he can left the ship too
Lol! That should of not made me laugh but it did. Thanks!
Ahh beat me to it.
No harm with a minor league deal. Hopefully he can stick in the Marlins pen.
Speaking of pens, did he sign his contract righty or lefty?
Depends if the guy he’s handing the paper back to is righty or lefty.
Well, he’s naturally a right but his dad taught him to pitch left handed because he thought that lefties were more desirable. So…probably righty
Interesting to see if any added value is placed on a guy that can pitch with both arms because of this ridiculous rule change.
The blurnsball era isn’t far off…
grab your scooter
Unfortunately there isn’t much value there to begin with.
The only player to have a rule named after him still playing
Trea Turner count?
Posey rule
Utley Rule
Oops sorry misread
And that rule absolutely screwed him. He is mediocre against pure left handed hitters, and mediocre against pure right handed hitters. But, if not for this rule, he would have been pure death against switch hitters. If the rule had been backwards, he would have forced switch-hitters to face pitching from a side that they absolutely never see. It’s a pity, that baseball had the opportunity to have this truly fascinating twist on the game, and they blew it.
Exactly.
Thanks for this take! Very insightful.
They had to enforce the rule; otherwise, the hitter and pitcher would just continue switching spots..
When the batter enters the batters box, that’s where he should stay. The advantage should go to the pitcher, to pitch from which arm he chooses. Baseball got it wrong.
I had a nice little comment queued up in the best pitcher of the decade article about my “other” write in and how they forgot the most important stat of them all: Most pitches thrown from both sides of the mound. Then low and behold, an ultra rare Pat Venditti article. I’ve always had thoughts Alexa was listening in, but now I’m convinced mlbtr is listening In as well. Kidding of course, but nice little coincidence.
From Bloomberg News the other day:
“Our goal is to free Alexa from the confines of electronic devises. Soon she’ll be encapsulated in the very air you breathe”
Science Fiction, huh?
Shame he’s not a starter. Go one game as a lefty then another as a righty. Hit 300 plus innings win 30 games strike out 400.
Or go 6-7 inning with one then rest with the other to throw a complete game
Signed a minor league deal with the Marlins? Seems redundant, considering they’re running a AAAA outfit…
Why would you polish a hammer? Smh.
Of courrrrrrseeeeeeee they do
Always wanted boston to let Greg Harris to pitch LH to some guys when they had him for several years. it was said his curve and 93-5fb RH was about the same LH as RH and he threw BP both sides, used the 6 finger glove in MLBs at all times.
Maybe was an oddity before it’s time was the issue.. 25y ago.
The amphibious pitcher?
now that he’s with the marlins.
These two comments made me giggle.
On the one hand, this was a good signing. But on the other hand…
So does he have to face 6 batters when he comes in?
Good signing by the Marlins. The new three batter minimum rule is perfect for him. Unless a team has switch hitters in the inning he’s pitching, he has the advantage. For switch hitters, he has to declare which arm he’s going to use before they do.
I was thinking the rule change does enhance his value to some type of degree. If he can’t get either right or left handers out obviously that’s an issue
With the new rule does he have to face three batters from the same side before he can switch hands? That would totally suck for him if someone like Joe West totally forced him to do that.
No, there shouldn’t be any change to that. The switch hitter has an advantage in that Pat has to choose first before the at-bat, but how much more strategy can they suck out of the game?
Ah the ‘amphibious’ pitcher signs
Unicorns are mythical. Venditte is real.
I mean, I’m pretty sure. Last I checked anyway.
Wow can’t believe he’s 34 already. I remember him coming up through the Yankees system. Feels like yesterday