When the Dodgers announced that they had signed 32-year-old switch-pitcher Pat Venditte to a minor league deal with an invitation to major league spring training camp this past November, there is a pretty good chance that many Dodger fans said “a switch-what?” I mean, let’s be honest here, how many Dodger fans have ever heard of such a thing, let alone actually seen it with their own eyes, right?

Well believe it. Not only is Venditte’s story a unique one, it is an incredible one.

“I started at three years old,” said the extremely polite Omaha, Nebraska native. “I’m a natural right-hander but my dad taught me to throw from the left side and the progression over the last 30 years I’ve worked on it.”

But what on earth would possess a father to teach his kid something like this at three years old … or at any age for that matter?

“Just thinking outside the box, just to see what kind of advantage I could have,” Venditte said. “You don’t know where that’s going to go as a 10-year-old, a 15-year-old. It was just one of those things that was helpful for me and it’s been able to turn into a career for me.”

A career indeed – one that has reached baseball’s highest level.

Pat Venditte right-handed.

Pat Venditte left-handed.

After being selected by the New York Yankees in the 20th round of the 2008 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Creighton University in Omaha, Venditte spent seven seasons in the Yankees organization, making it as high as the Double-A level. He was granted free agency following the 2014 season and signed with the Oakland A’s in 2015.

It was with the A’s that the 6′-1″ / 185-pound switch-pitcher became the answer to a trivia question when he made his MLB debut on June 5, 2015 against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. In his two innings of work, Venditte allowed only one hit – a single – while striking out one and inducing a double play. And while the then (almost) 30-year-old didn’t figure in the decision, he faced the minimum of six batters in his two innings pitched, thus fulfilling both his and his father’s dream of pitching in the major leagues. He would eventually appear in 26 games for Oakland, posting a 2-2 record and 4.40 ERA, but was placed on waivers at the conclusion of the 2015 season.

Venditte was claimed by the Toronto Blue Jays following the 2015 season and went 0-0 with a 5.19 ERA in eight MLB games before being traded to the Seattle Mariners in August of 2016. He appeared in seven games with the Mariners, again going 0-0 but with an ERA of 6.08. In March of 2017 he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies but spent the entire season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley and was granted free agency following the 2017 season, until signed by the Dodgers on November 26, 2017 and given an invitation to major league spring training camp.

Venditte admits that throughout his pre-professional career, he had to constantly convince his coaches that he was a legitimate switch-pitcher who could pitch effectively from both sides of the mound.

“All the time. Until you really get to the major league level, there’s not a whole lot of video – or anything like that – that people can see,” Venditte said. “You’re in a specific portion of the country in the northeast and nobody had really ever seen me pitch before.

“Any time you’re different, you have to convince people and the only way to do that is with results, and that’s what I found myself [doing] with every outing.”

But what about the guy 60-feet / 6-inches away? For his first spring training bullpen session on Thursday morning, Venditte’s catcher was 29-year-old Shawn Zarraga, who is also a non-roster invitee to Dodgers major league spring training camp.

“I’ve never caught somebody who is ambidextrous, it was interesting,” said Zarraga. “It’s actually like two guys on the mound, that’s what you put in your head. It’s sort of different, it’s unique.

“I faced (Venditte) in 2008 or 2009 in the Florida State League but he always stayed one side, he never switched on me,” added Zarraga.

How did Venditte do in Zarraga’s opinion?

“His curveball right-side is pretty good, it’s like 12-6, it dives,” Zarraga said. “He throws a lot of strikes. I was skeptical at first thinking ‘Nah, his control is not going to be good on both sides,’ but he actually threw a majority of strikes.

“He likes to work corners, his ball moves both sides,” added Zarraga. “He sinks it when he’s on the left, he sinks it when he’s on the right, his sliders is the same on both sides, he has a curveball on the right, which is pretty unique. Wherever he lands he’ll do some damage.”

That’s a pretty good endorsement from a guy who has spent 10 seasons behind the plate in professional baseball, a good portion of it at the Triple-A level.

But what about the boss? What does Dodgers manager Dave Roberts think of his double-barrel weapon?

“I like the glove,” the Dodger skipper kidded. “No, Pat’s great. You hear about him … I actually liked his ‘pen [on Thursday], pitch execution, the versatility obviously. So, I’m interested in putting eyes on him because I haven’t really seen it up close in a game, so it’s going to be interesting.”

Asked if he liked Venditte’s bullpen session equally from both sides of the mound, Roberts was succinct but also tossed in another bit of humor.

“I like him from both. I was kind of curious on how he was going to navigate through the ‘pen, if he was going to be all left and then go to the right,” Roberts said. “So he sort of kind of changed after 10 or 15 pitches, something like that so … maybe I might defer to the left right now. But no, it’s good.”

What many baseball fans may not know is that even though Venditte is the only switch-pitcher of the 21st century, there have actually been several throughout MLB history. The first known switch-pitchers were Tony Mullane, Elton ‘Ice Box’ Chamberlain and Larry Corcoran in the 19th century.

In the 20th century, Greg Harris was the only major leaguer to pitch with both arms and did so in only one game. Although proficient with both, Harris wasn’t allowed to throw left-handed in a regular-season game until September 28, 1995. The former Montreal Expo retired Cincinnati Reds slugger Reggie Sanders pitching right-handed, then switched to his left hand for the next two hitters, Hal Morris and Ed Taubensee, who both batted left-handed. Harris walked Morris but got Taubensee to ground out. He then went back to his right hand to retire Bret Boone to end the inning.

As you might expect and even though switch-pitchers are extremely rare, there are very specific MLB rules in place for them.

“The biggest thing, the rules come up when there’s a switch-hitter, and the rule is that I have to declare first to the hitter which way I’m going to face them,” Venditte said. “Really, this is all decided even before the series even starts. There’s so much that goes into that and I leave that decision up to the coaches unless we have previous history with certain hitters. But I’ll know before the series starts which way I’m going to face every switch-hitter.

“When that hitter comes up, I’ll be on the mound – there’s no delay – and the casual fan has no idea that anything would happen.”

One common misconception, although it’s understandable since most baseball fans have never seen a switch-pitcher, is that they can change pitching arms at will, which is most definitely not the case.

“Once the hitter is in the box and I step on the rubber, that’s it until the next hitter is announced,” explained Venditte. “I’m not allowed to switch until the next hitter is announced.”