Do You Know the Journey of Baseball's First Switch Pitcher?

Pat Venditte pitching for the then Oakland Athletics, CCed by Liscense 2.0

I originally came across Pat Venditte in MLB The Show 19’s franchise mode when I signed him in free agency. I had no clue of Venditte’s unique ability and when I had him appear in his first game, my 15-year-old self was flabbergasted that he was throwing from both sides of the mound. I thought the game had glitched or something, but little did I know that looking up Venditte and learning about his switch-pitching metrics would quickly make him one of my favorite players ever.

Pat Venditte was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2008, becoming the first ambidextrous pitcher to play professional baseball for a minor league affiliated team. Major League Baseball originally did not have a rule for switch pitchers as they never had to deal with one before. This immediately created problems, as when Venditte was in his first minor league appearance in June of ‘08, against the Brooklyn Cyclones, Venditte faced switch-hitting Ralph Henriquez.

Venditte chose to pitch with the same hand that Henriquez was batting with. The two would keep changing sides to regain advantages several times before both teams appealed to the umpiring crew. The Venditte Rule would later be created several weeks later, where a switch pitcher is to visually indicate to the umpire-in-chief, the batter and any runners on base the hand with which he (the pitcher) intends to pitch with for that at-bat.

Venditte’s impact was monumental in his first season with 23 saves and a 0.83 ERA. His first taste of ‘major league’ action came in 2010 Spring Training when New York faced Atlanta, where the switch-pitching Venditte would give up an earned run in 1.1 innings.

Over the next several years Venditte would put up top-prospect like numbers, but was never considered as a Top 5, 10 or even 25 prospect by many due to his age. Venditte, without any service time in the regular season and no contract, would become a free agent after the 2014 season. 

The Oakland Athletics would sign Venditte and have him begin 2015 at Triple-AAA, where he once again pitched to a sub 2.00 ERA before being called up for his Major League debut at age 29. His rookie season with Oakland saw a 4.40 ERA in 26 games and 28.2 innings. Overall, those 28 innings would be the most pitched in the majors for a single-season throughout a five year up-and-down career stretch with six different teams for an even two years of MLB service time.

Venditte would be un-signed entering 2021, subsequently retiring with a 2-2 record 4.73 ERA in 61 games and 72.1 innings. The Omaha native averaged just above 12 innings pitched per-team despite his platoon advantage of being a switch pitcher.  

In 2025, Pat Venditte is a forgotten player and has been out of the league entirely since the weird 2020 COVID season where he played with the Marlins. Venditte was a pioneer of switch pitching and his six-fingered glove. And in 2024, the legacy of switch pitching was put back on the map when the Seattle Mariners drafted Jurrangelo Cijntje in the 15th round. When Cijinte eventually makes his major league debut, he will become the second switch pitcher in MLB history to pitch in the big leagues, and he will be following the Pat Venditte rule.