A's promote switch-pitching Venditte to bigs

Pat Venditte is a switch pitcher. (USATSI)

The Oakland Athletics are set to make a roster move Friday that would appear to be a relatively minor one (via Jane Lee), as a reliever who has spent parts of eight years in the minors will be called up for the first time.

That man, though, is ambidextrous Pat Venditte, so this is a big story.

Major League Baseball hasn’t seen a “switch pitcher” before. Greg Harris, a 15-year right-handed pitcher from the ’80s and ’90s could throw as a lefty, but he only did so to two batters in his final season. Otherwise he stayed righty for the other 6,291 batters he faced.

Venditte is a true matchup switcher and, thus, unique to MLB history. He must declare before the batter which hand he’ll be using to pitch — a rule specifically put in place due to Venditte’s unique skill — so he won’t end up having the advantage against switch-hitters, but otherwise he will be throwing lefty to left-handers and righty to right-handers.

Here’s a look at his custom-made glove, which he can switch between hands as needed (via San Francisco Chronicle):

Now here’s a look at Venditte warming both arms during a spring training outing:

Venditte appeared in 17 games this season with Triple-A Nashville, sporting a 1.36 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 33 strikeouts in 33 innings.

Some may view this as a bit of a sideshow, but note the numbers. Venditte has been effective this season and has earned his shot. Not only that, but this is the culmination of more than seven years working his way through the minors to debut in the majors at age 29. It took him five years just to get to Triple-A after being a 20th round pick in 2008.

Good for Venditte. And, really, given how entertaining he’ll be on the mound, good for all of us, too.

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