Pitcher Cut By Dodgers Praises Mark Prior's 'Brutal Honesty'

One former Dodgers pitcher preferred Prior's honesty to others' flattery.

Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior (99) speaks in a press conference before game three against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 16, 2025. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Pat Venditte's Dodger career was brief but memorable. The only full-time switch-pitcher in MLB history pitched 15 regular season games for Los Angeles in 2018.

Venditte actually began the season with Triple-A Oklahoma City after having made 41 major league appearances with the Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays to that point in his career.

As he recalled in a recent social media post, Venditte might not have made it back to the big leagues at all without a bit of tough love from Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior.

Prior "had the most hurtful and most valuable exit interview advice I ever received," Venditte wrote in a post to his LinkedIn account.

"Dave Roberts, Rick Honeycutt, and Andrew Friedman had nice praise for a solid Spring Training," Venditte said. "Mark was short and to the point."

"He was the last to talk," Venditte continued. "Flips through pages of notes and says 'Pat, when you get behind in the count you are statically the worst pitcher in all of Major Leage Baseball. If you want to be a part of this Dodger team go to Oklahoma City and make sure strike one happens.'

"The praise was nice from the other 3 but, it didn’t give me anything to focus on. The brutal honesty from Mark was the kick in the butt I needed. Something that was attainable but gave specific instruction. Went to [Triple-A] and did exactly what he asked."

Venditte allowed only four runs in 14 innings with the Dodgers, good for a 2.57 ERA. He only walked three batters across his 15 big league appearances in 2018.

The now-40-year-old only made five more major league appearances in his career — two with the San Francisco Giants in 2019 and three with the Miami Marlins in 2020 — before retiring from baseball.

No other switch-pitchers have appeared in a game since.

Although the Dodgers designated Venditte for assignment after the 2018 season, ending his tenure in the organization after just one year, his memories of the team are clearly fond.

"Honest conversations are never fun, but the results can be substantial," Venditte wrote on LinkedIn. "It was a day that in the moment was rough, but long term one of the most influential five minutes in my professional career."

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