In his eighth season in professional baseball, Pat Venditte has finally received a call to the majors. The only pitcher who requires a special notation on his Baseball Reference page
will pitch out of the A's bullpen after the team finally tired of The Dan Otero Show:
That's ugly. Given that he has options, it made sense that he'd go as soon as the A's decided he wasn't going to turn things around in the majors any time soon. By the way, it never dawned on me that Otero had options, but in retrospect, it's obvious:
| 2011-12 offseason | Contract purchased by Giants |
| 2012 | Optioned by Giants |
| 2013 | Waived by Giants, claimed by Yankees |
| 2013 | DFA'd and waived by Yankees, claimed by A's |
| 2013 | Optioned by the A's |
| Seven days later, 2013 | DFA'd and outrighted by A's |
| 2013 | Added back to the 40-man by A's |
| 2014 | Spends entire year in the majors |
Otero has only been optioned once in his career, because the optional assignment in 2013 was shorter than 20 days, which means he's still going to be optionable even come 2016 (unless another rule besides the basic three-options comes into play).