May 12: Venditte has cleared waivers, tweets Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. Venditte will remain in the Giants organization and will report to Triple-A Sacramento.
May 7: The Giants announced that infielder/outfielder Yangervis Solarte and ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte have each been designated for assignment. Their spots on the roster will go to outfielder Mac Williamson and infielder/outfielder Donovan Solano — each of whom was reported to be joining the MLB club earlier today. San Francisco also optioned outfielder Mike Gerber to Triple-A Sacramento and recalled lefty Williams Jerez.
Solarte, 31, made the club out of Spring Training after coming to camp as a non-roster invitee, but he hasn’t rebounded to form as the club hoped. From 2014-17 with the Yankees and Padres, the switch-hitter was a .267/.327/.419 hitter capable of playing multiple spots on the infield, but Solarte struggled through an awful 2018 season with the Blue Jays (.226/.277/.378) and was worse in 78 plate appearances with the Giants (.205/.247/.315).
Venditte inked a split big league contract this offseason but has been tagged for six runs on four hits, a pair of walks and three hit batters with two strikeouts in just 3 1/3 innings out of Bruce Bochy’s bullpen so far. Venditte has a 5.03 ERA in 68 big league innings and has never been able to stick at the MLB level despite considerable intrigue surrounding his ability to pitch both right- and left-handed. His best work has come as a left-on-left specialist, as he’s held opponents to a pitiful .179/.226/.349 slash through 115 plate appearances in such matchups.
Then why don’t teams utilize Venditte as a damn lefty then??
As a Yankees fan, he fascinated me in Single A Staten Island, but he somehow never moved up the gain here.
He had a special glove that you could wear on either hand and rules had to be re-written because he could switch hands per at bat (even per pitch).
This was caused because one time a switch hitter came up and he switched sides and the batter switched boxes and then the umpires got annoyed = )
Thanks for the story literally the entire baseball community already knows about. The guy is trying so hard to utilize the switch throwing but it’s obviously ineffective and stupid when you can just straight dominate and hone in on being a lefty.
The problem is the loogy is going the way of th dodo. Starting next year relief pitchers are going to have a 3 batter minimum. Venditte is nasty against lefties because of the movement he generates. Unfortunately, right handers tend to tee off on that movement and when he pitches RH his fastball has no velocity. How many 85mph relief pitchers are in baseball today?
Luke Gregorson retired recently I think but off the top of my head.. virtually nobody. Thomas Pannone?
That’s not a definite yet. They’re testing it in the independent Atlantic League, but MLB & MLBPA haven’t agreed to it, as far as I know.
Luke Gregerson just pitched about 30 minutes ago.
im pretty sure that was part of next year’s rules package.
Gregerson isn’t retired. He pitched tonight for the Cardinals.
It’s such a small sample so I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s significantly better as a lefty
JP Howell was one, and IIRC, he was very effective for awhile.
Very, very rare though.
The 3 batter minimum will not pass, players union want no part of it. At least, that’s the last I heard about it..
I saw Venditte hit 3 hitters yesterday in the same inning. It was sad. Control just isn’t there. It’s cool he can do what he does, but I’m in agreement with you. Should just stick to lefty on lefty.
There won’t be lefty specialists once the 3 batter rule starts. He’ll be worthless if he can’t get some righties out.
Good point but then he loses his value. The Giants already have 3 lefties. Good ones. Venditte’s value was 2 pitchers for one roster spot.
SFG was using him as a southpaw. He still got shelled.
Garry. Zero hits in 5 abs as a lefty. He was used both ways. Don’t post if ur gonna guess. Unless “shelled” has a different meaning than it m aware of
Shelled must mean giving up peanuts in this case. Which is coincidentally also Venditte’s trade value.
Bring Solarte back to SD and DFA Kinsler already.
His energy and Fan-favoritism already would infuse itself very well with this current group of Padres. He isn’t hitting currently but neither is Kinsler, Solarte/Garcia/France at 2B after Tatis returns sounds way better than how that position currently looks.
Padres are cheap if they spend the money they want at least games played in returned
Love Solarte the person however Solarte the player hits as bad or worse than Kinsler and has nowhere near the glove. I hope he comes back as a coach but not as a player.
As bad as Solarte’s playing this year, he’s still playing better than Kinsler. Kinsler’s had 1 good game, other than that he’s hitting about 150. Brings back memories of Jim Edmonds and Jim Presley, 2 guys the Padres picked up based upon recent successes who quickly showed that there was nothing left in the tank. Hopefully, they do what they did with Headley last year and cut their losses and dump him.
Jim Presley is a name I haven’t read in a long, long time. Not sure he ever had much “in the tank” though since he was done by age 29 and finished with 0.3 WAR.
He has Pirate written all over him.
Being that he’s cheap and ineffective.
Half of the involved trio are former Yankees.
Half of the group involved are former Yankees *
Gerber was also drafted by the Yankees out of high school but did not sign.
I thought he was an amphibious pitcher?
I don’t think he can swim
I thought he animorphus?
Animorphous? Really?
Everyone knew some heads would roll after that abysmal game yesterday. 7-1 in the second & 12-4 final?
Sure Venidette hit a very Reds but Pomerantz got the Giants into the stinking mess in the first place. His start to the season stinks (5.93 ERA with 1-4 w/l).
Deal with the real problem, your starting pitchers.
Someone knows how to end a chain joke……
Good they can keep Gerber. I’d like at least another look down the road at some point.
Had one great at bat. Got in his head. And was pitched accordingly.
Maybe more time needed.
Giants roster is like a game of musical chairs this season!
Except that the music is Yoko Ono’s Greatest Hits, or whatever other music you can’t stand listening to.
Hey connfused, I’m going with Michael Bolton. Btw, Yoko had hits?
Shatner (first syllable Shat btw) had an album or 2.
“For my money, I don’t know if it gets any better than when he sings ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’.”
No. The original Percy Sledge is better. And it’s not like Bolton gave it any kind of new interpretation He just copied Sledge in every unoriginal, way. I never understood why people liked Bolton’s copy so much, unless it’s that they were completely unaware of the original.
agentx was quoting from Office Space. Great line, great movie. Nicely played X.
You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Shatner sing “Common People”
I celebrate his entire catalog.
Cmon Tad. We’re obviously talking BAD music. X was being facetious. Of course sledge was great. Awesome in fact. Redeem yourself Tad. We’re looking for awful, awful Bolton-ness and the like
it’s more like david hasslehoff’s greatest hits
You can just call me Mike
Naga… naga… Naganna work here anymore
It went over your head, Claude.
I always felt Miami would be a good place for him. It’s close to his family for one thing. Maybe Miami makes a claim.