Several of my followers have asked for an update on my friend and pitcher Michele Vassalotti. What better time to write one than on the one-year anniversary from when Team Italy announced the World Baseball Classic roster.  Despite his young age of 22 and only having accomplished A ball in the minors, Vassa had been invited by Team Italy to pitch on the world stage just a few weeks later.

Thanks to an online company out of Ireland, I was able to watch Team Italy’s games in Taiwan.  The downside was keeping up with the day and time change!  I found myself sipping hot, green tea at 3AM while I watched MLB Hall of Famer Mike Piazza manage the Team Italy lineup to a successful run for a trip to the second round of the WBC in Japan.  Vassalotti did not disappoint!  In his four innings, he held Team Panama to just one run and a hit.  One of his three strikeouts was Tampa Bay Rays Christian Bethancourt who also threw his bat in frustration against the dugout wall after Vassalotti pitched him into a double play out his next at bat.  The one hit he gave up was a homerun by LA Dodgers prospect Jose Ramos, but Vassa came right back at Ramos again two innings later with a strikeout. 

There was no rest after the almost two weeks in Taiwan and Japan as well as the travel back to the US.  Because the WBC was held during spring training, Vassa immediately reported to the final two weeks of Brewers spring training in Arizona. Then it was on to Appleton, Wisconsin for a summer of High A ball.   In my years of watching baseball, I would describe High A as the most challenging of all levels of minor league baseball.  It is the level where most players are too good for A ball, but not developed enough for AA.  An injury to the shortstop in July stifled the team with much less experienced players being rotated to the position.  I felt like I was re-living my brother’s Little League games watching terrible batting and horrible fielding that led to longer innings by the pitchers.  A silver lining in the dark cloud was June 16 when Vassa was awarded Pitcher of the Day for Brewers Farm System when he faced 9 batters in 3 perfect innings of relief.  When the season ended, Vassalotti became a free agent.

He headed back to Venezuela just to unpack and repack for his next assignment for Team Italy in the 2023 Baseball European Championship.  Training games were held in Trieste, Northern Italy near the Slovenia border and then it was on to Třebíč in the Czech Republic for the tournament with fifteen other teams.  In the media for the tournament, Team Italy described the Italian-Venezuelan pitcher as the “Player with the greatest perspective and future.”  The most memorable highlight of that stint was not on the field, but meeting up with his sister, Fefi, who he had not seen for six years. 

After the two weeks in Europe, he again was not idle long.  It was time to try out for the Cardenales de Lara of Venezuelan Professional Baseball League in winter ball.  His hard work throughout the year and a velocity in the 90s landed him a spot on the roster.  It was a season of being mentored by several major league coaches and pitchers.  He made the most of each outing.  He regained confidence in his nasty slider – a pitch that left many of the batters he faced including MLB’s Yasiel Puig, befuddled.  The Cardenales made it to the championship but ran into a hot Tiburones de La Guaira team out of Caracas.  Vassa pitched no-hit ball in middle relief and obtained the only Cardenales win in the championship. The Tiburones went on to Miami and got the MLB exposure in the Caribbean Series.  

What happens now for Vassalotti remains an unknown.  As a couple of agents explained to me, it’s a bad year to be a minor league free agent, especially one in Venezuela.  Shohei Ohtani’s delayed-signing created a log jam of other MLB and MiLB free agents waiting to see what team and salary he signed for.  The political climate between the US and Venezuela coupled with the State Department’s Level 4 – Do Not Travel Advisory, prevents American scouts from traveling to Venezuela where they could observe players in action.  Vassalotti has an Italian passport and ESTA so getting to the US is not a problem. However, you can’t just walk into spring training and ask for a tryout like they do with football. For now, Michele is weighing all options out there like playing in Mexico, Japan, Independent League in the US or Venezuelan summer ball but his goal remains to be back in Major League Baseball someday as he should be.