12:27pm: Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets that Venditte’s guarantee is a modest $585K that checks in just $30K north of the league minimum.
12:06pm: The Giants announced Friday that they’ve signed switch-pitcher Pat Venditte to a one-year, Major League contract. The addition of Venditte brings San Francisco’s 40-man roster to a total of 38 players.
Venditte, 33, is the game’s lone ambidextrous pitcher and is a familiar talent to new San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who was the Dodgers’ general manager last season when Venditte pitched for Los Angeles. Venditte threw quite well in his limited time with the Dodgers, logging a 2.57 ERA with nine strikeouts against three walks in 14 innings of relief. In his career as a whole, Venditte owns a 4.45 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 through 64 2/3 innings.
Venditte has generally fared better as a lefty facing left-handed opponents (.190/.291/.307) than as a right-hander facing righty bats (.259/.372/.472). Venditte’s fastball sat at just 85.6 mph in 2018, but his unorthodox delivery has helped him to find some success at the big league level. He’s also induced swinging-strikes at an 11 percent clip — a perhaps loftier rate than one might’ve otherwise expected from a soft-tosser of this mold.
With less than two years of Major League service time under his belt, Venditte won’t even be eligible for arbitration for another two seasons. As such, if he can prove himself a capable bullpen piece in what could be his best opportunity to seizing a regular role, he’d still be a pre-arbitration player next winter. Technically, he can be controlled all the way through 2023 if he cements himself as a definitively big league caliber arm.
Long live the switch pitcher!
Former Dodger.
Among other teams. What’s your point?
Saudi connection. Should be obvious.
Whoops. Zaidi
Amphibious pitcher signed to defend McCovey cove
Every team needs one.
Pat Venditte is a frog, confirmed.
So well be seeing Frog Hats in the Giants gift shop before long…
Lol, I think that would be really fun if they did that.
LA needs a pitcher to defend against choking in October. Hint, it ain’t Kershaw haha
What was your trigger word?
They are 11-5 in last 16 playoff games Kershaw started. But sure its all his fault
Which hand did he use to sign the contract?
Is this guy even good enough to pitch in the majors?
Looking at his stats, yes. He is worthy of the 25th (also kind of 26th) spot on an MLB team.
Idk seems like a very small sample size. I could see a minor league deal. Not sure why I’m getting down votes on a simple question
Hey, if it was saves time from managers going out there and going from a lefty pitcher, to a righty pitcher, then back to a lefty pitcher every batter then I’m all for this guy being on MLB teams lol
Im sure Bochy would love that idea. But I doubt I’m skeptical about his right arm.
lol I AM skeptical about his right arm. ha. I see its a 585k deal. That’s low enough to give him a shot.
the foot
What happens if he opposes a switch hitter?
They would each have to declare what side they’re going to use to the umpire in that case.
He has to declare which side he’s going to pitch from every time he enters the game anyway, and he cannot change during that outing unfortunately.
You’re dead wrong Colossus! He is allowed to switch arms in between plate appearances.
WRONG
He CAN change arms in an outing. He just can not change arms during a plate appearance.
A nuclear holocaust
Nice try, Shortytallz, but not quite. Andrew’s right. When the Dodgers faced the Mets last season, Jose Reyes came up to hit against Venditte. Venditte had to declare which arm he was going to use before Reyes showed how he would bat.
As far as I’m aware, if he’s already on the mound he cannot change which side he’s going to pitch from, he must continue from the same side he started with.
Inception.
An infinite loop
Venditte has to choose which arm he wants to pitch with and commit to that choice for the entire plate appearance. Then the batter can choose which side he wants to hit from.
Switch pitching is so underrated
Wish Yanks let guy drafted in first round last draft pitch, instead of catching full-time.
Shout out Anthony Seigler, probably only switch pitcher in MLB, outside Pat, if only Yanks let him pitch.
Switch-pitcher and switch-hitter before getting drafted but natural position is Catcher. Aww!
I saw him pitch..,,.each time, he was effective..not sure why teams didn’t give him more opportunities..also, it’s fun watching him
He was okay, not fantastic.
Interesting — this looks like a move that will end with the Giants trading Will Smith and/or Tony Watson.
Or just depth as Zaidi has saying he wants to improve on
1 of the 2 should go if you can net a return once the supply dries up. the giants aren’t making moves to compete this year so moving some solid bullpen guys totally makes sense.
I watched him pitch here in OKC last season, and he was one of our more consistent relievers. He is a great guy and was a bunch of fun to watch.
The look on my 7 year old’s face when he realized that he was throwing with a different arm was priceless! He even can over before one of the games to show him his glove. He quickly became his favorite player, and he would always ask “when the pitcher with both arms was going to come in?”
lol that’s awesome!!
Actually somewhat happy about this. Venditte will hopefully be better than Pierce Johnson.
Depth Move. . . Not Bad
He’s just one of those guys I always pull for. I wish him nothing but the very best.
Well here we go again give us your sick give us your old give us your retired will send them out to pasture at AT&T Park.
On one hand I understand this signing. On the other hand I don’t.
Circus freak show
Depth move for when the Giants start trading off their lefty relievers.
funny comment gets deleted b.c it offends the sensibilities of those with a certain lifestyle, even though it wasn’t overt. sounds about right.
I’ve had comments deleted here going on 9 years. You’ll be just fine.
The Giants now have all 3 active Creighton alumni on their 40-man roster. Active major leaguers, that is.
largest payroll in baseball and all Zaidi has done is spent half a million dollars on an amphibious pitcher. boring offseason for the Giants so far.