Will Venable
Will Venable | |
---|---|
Texas Rangers – No. 83 | |
Outfielder / Coach | |
Born: Greenbrae, California, U.S. | October 29, 1982|
Batted: Left Threw: Left | |
MLB debut | |
August 29, 2008, for the San Diego Padres | |
Last MLB appearance | |
July 6, 2016, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |
MLB statistics | |
Batting average | .249 |
Home runs | 81 |
Runs batted in | 307 |
Teams | |
As player
As coach
| |
Career highlights and awards | |
|
William Dion Venable (born October 29, 1982) is an American professional baseball coach and former player. He is the associate manager of the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB as an outfielder for the San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers, and he was a coach for the Chicago Cubs. He is the son of former MLB outfielder Max Venable and is the older brother of former National Football League player Winston Venable.
Venable played college basketball for Princeton, where he was the second athlete to earn first-team All-Ivy League honors in both baseball and basketball. In the 2005 MLB Draft, the Padres selected Venable in the seventh round; he made his major league debut in 2008. Although he broke into MLB as a center fielder, he played mostly as a right fielder after his second season. He finished among the top 10 in the National League in triples four times and in stolen bases twice. He has the most MLB career hits and home runs of any Princeton alumnus.
Early life and amateur career
Venable was born in 1982 in Greenbrae in Marin County, California, at a time when his father Max Venable was an MLB player for the nearby San Francisco Giants.[1][2] He grew up travelling around the country with his father and also lived in Japan and the Dominican Republic.[3]
High school
In high school, he envisioned himself as more likely to be a professional basketball player than baseball player.[3] Prior to his freshman year, his mother, Molly, objected to him quitting baseball to focus on basketball.[4] As both a high school sophomore and a high school junior, Venable was second-team San Francisco Bay Area All-Metro basketball player for San Rafael High School.[5][6] He was the Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) most valuable player in basketball as a freshman, sophomore and junior.[7][8] As a sophomore, he led his team to the MCAL League Championship.[9][10] As a senior, he gave up the responsibility of being point forward.[11]
College career
Venable chose to attend
Venable, who was a member of the class of 2005 at Princeton University, was the second athlete in Ivy League history (after his Padres teammate Chris Young) to be first-team All-Ivy in both basketball and baseball and he played on Ivy League Champion National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship tournament participants in both sports.[12] He played in two NCAA Championship tournaments in both sports and earned a B.A. in anthropology.[12]
In basketball, he averaged over 10 points and over 30 minutes per game in his 2002–03 sophomore season through his 2004–05 senior season.[14]
Bradley had left the door open for Venable to come take
Professional career
Minor League Baseball
After graduating from Princeton, Venable made his professional debut in
In 2006, Venable was the Padres Minor League Player of the Year.
Subsequently, for the 2006 West Oahu CaneFires of the Hawaii Winter Baseball, Venable posted a .330 batting average, .390 on-base percentage (OBP), and .473 slugging percentage.[24] He won the batting title that season and was named league most valuable player.[12][24] He also led the league in doubles and was second to John Otness in OBP.[24] In the outfield, Venable made no errors.[25] Before the 2007 season, Venable was listed as the fifth best prospect in the Padres organization by Baseball America,[26] and they named him the #11 prospect in the league. They also named him as a Baseball America Low-A All-Star.[21]
In 2007, Venable batted .278 with a .337 OBP in 134 games for the
During 2008 spring training, he had two home runs and eight runs batted in his first twelve at-bats.[29] He then posted a .292 batting average, .361 on-base percentage and .464 slugging percentage in 120 games for the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League in 2008.[18][30]
San Diego Padres
2008–2011
Venable had been expected to be a September 2008 call-up, but when
Although in 2008 Baseball America projected Venable as an every day starter for the Padres in 2010,
In
In
2012–2015
In 2012, Venable and Chris Denorfia formed a platoon in right field, with Venable getting most of the starts against right-handed pitchers and batting .270 against them.[67] Venable made 80 starts in right, but appeared in a then-career-high 148 games for the year. When not starting in right, he made occasional starts in center and left field and made 26 pinch-hitting appearances. On May 15, 2012, Venable had a single, double and triple by the fourth inning against the Washington Nationals, but his 4-hit effort again fell short of the franchise's cycle.[68] On May 23, Venable had his sixth career lead off home run and added a single in the second inning and a double in the fourth against the St. Louis Cardinals. He ended up one hit shy of the cycle for the fifth time, this time a triple.[69] On June 3, Venable suffered a strained oblique muscle and left the game,[70] missing four more games with the injury. Venable finished the year batting .264 with 9 home runs and 45 RBI. He collected 8 triples, finishing 9th in the league, and also committed 7 errors, tied for first among NL outfielders.[40]
Coming into 2013, Venable was again expected to platoon with Denorfia in right, but injuries to center fielder Cameron Maybin and left fielder Carlos Quentin expanded his playing time.[71] He made 68 starts in right and 52 in center and played in a career-high 151 games. Venable entered the season with 401 hits, which was 48 shy of the record for an alumnus of Princeton Tigers Baseball held by Moe Berg. His 46 home runs were already a school best.[72] For the week of August 12–18, 2013, Venable won the National League Player of the Week Award. During the week Venable tied his single-game career high with 4 hits, joined the Padres' 100-steal club, hit a walk-off home run, made a home run stealing catch and surpassed his previous career best hitting streak by 5 to 15. It marked his first Player of the Week Award as he hit .406 (13-for-32) with two home runs, two doubles, a triple and seven runs scored.[73][74] On September 13, David Hale (Princeton class of 2011) made his major league debut for the Atlanta Braves, and it became the second Princeton vs. Princeton batter-pitcher matchup in major league history. Hale struck out Venable and eight other Padres in his debut for the Braves, setting a franchise debut record.[35][75][76] Venable was voted the Padres' Most Valuable Player for the 2013 season by local baseball writers and other members of the media as he became the 8th player in Padres history to record at least 20 home runs and 20 steals in a season.[71] For the year, Venable hit .268 with 22 home runs and a .796 on-base plus slugging, all new career highs. He also stole 22 bases and finished tied for 5th in the league with 8 triples.[2]
On September 2, 2013, Venable signed a two-year contract extension with the Padres to keep him in San Diego through the 2015 season.[77] Venable batted .224 with eight home runs in the 2014 season. His batting average, .288 on-base percentage, .325 slugging percentage, and 38 RBIs were all career lows for a full season.[78] During the 2014–15 offseason, the Padres acquired outfielders Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, and Wil Myers, shifting Venable into a reserve role.[79][80] For the Padres in 2015, Venable hit .258 with six home runs, 10 doubles, and 11 stolen bases through mid-August.[81]
Texas Rangers
On August 18, 2015, the Padres traded Venable to the
Philadelphia Philles
On February 28, 2016, Venable signed a minor league deal with the
Los Angeles Dodgers
On June 14, 2016, the
Post-playing career
On September 6, 2017, Venable was named a special assistant to Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein.[96] Venable served as the first base coach of the Cubs in 2018 and 2019.[97] For the 2020 season, he was shifted to third base coach.[98]
On November 20, 2020, Venable was announced as the bench coach of the Boston Red Sox.[99] On May 29, 2021, Venable managed his first MLB game, filling in for Alex Cora in a game against the Miami Marlins, as Cora was in Puerto Rico to attend the high school graduation of one of his children; the Red Sox won, 3–1.[100] On August 7, 2021, during a series in Canada against the Toronto Blue Jays, Venable tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in Venable and first-base coach Tom Goodwin (deemed a close contact) quarantining away from the rest of Red Sox personnel.[101]
During the 2022 season, Venable led the Red Sox for six games in the latter half of April after manager Cora tested positive for COVID-19; the team went 1–5 in those games.[102]
On November 16, 2022, Venable was hired by the Texas Rangers to be an associate manager alongside Bruce Bochy.[103]
See also
References
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External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet