William Dion Venable (born October 29, 1982) is an American professional baseball coach and former player.

He played in MLB as an outfielder for the San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

In the 2005 MLB Draft, the Padres selected Venable in the seventh round; he made his major league debut in 2008.

[5][6] He was the Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) most valuable player in basketball as a freshman, sophomore and junior.

[13] Venable was the second athlete in Ivy League history to be first-team All-Ivy in both basketball and baseball, following fellow Princton alum and future San Diego Padres teammate and Texas Rangers co-worker Chris Young.

Venable played on Ivy League Champion National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship tournament participants in both sports.

Thus, instead of signing and giving up his amateur status, Venable returned for his senior season and posted a league leading 9 home runs and second-best .385 batting average while earning All-League honors.

[19] With his father as a team hitting coach,[12][19] Venable posted a .314 batting average, .389 on-base percentage (OBP), and .477 slugging percentage for the Fort Wayne Wizards of the single-A Midwest League (MWL),[18] which earned him both mid-season and post-season MWL All-Star honors.

[20][21] He tied for the MWL lead in runs scored and was among the top four Padre farmhands in RBIs, batting average, and stolen bases.

[26] After the season ended, he was invited to play for the San Diego affiliate in the Arizona Fall League,[27] but he was afflicted with tendinitis in his shoulder and only hit .228.

[38] Although in 2008 Baseball America projected Venable as an every day starter for the Padres in 2010,[25] some experts questioned whether he would be a long-term solution in center field for the team.

[42] Following the July 5 trade of Scott Hairston to the Oakland Athletics, Venable shared right field with Kyle Blanks.

[4] On August 23 against the St. Louis Cardinals, he was involved in a bench-clearing incident when Albert Pujols thought he threw an elbow while being tagged out.

He executed some delayed steals by taking off with the toss back to the mound "when neither infielder is covering second and the catcher is nonchalant with the ball after receiving the pitch.

"[47] On May 19, Venable moved into the leadoff position in the lineup, and he fell a home run shy of the franchise's first cycle against the Los Angeles Dodgers, going 4-for-5 at the plate after getting a triple in the 1st inning and a double in the third.

[48] On June 23, 25 and 27, Venable hit tie-breaking home runs in Padre victories against the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays.

[52] On September 29 against the Chicago Cubs, he robbed two potential home runs, from Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramírez, on deep fly balls.

[1] In 2011, Venable started slowly, hitting only .205 in April and was eventually optioned to the Triple-A Tucson Padres on May 23 before being recalled on June 9.

[60] On August 10 against the New York Mets, Venable had four hits, again missing the cycle by a home run when he posted a second double in a ninth inning at bat.

[61] On August 21, Veneble delivered a leadoff home run and the game-winning bases-loaded walk-off hit on Trevor Hoffman Day.

On May 15, 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 cycle.

[65] On May 23, Venable had his sixth career leadoff home run and added a single in the second inning and a double in the fourth against the St. Louis Cardinals.

[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.

[75] During the 2014–15 offseason, the Padres acquired outfielders Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, and Wil Myers, shifting Venable into a reserve role.

[78] On August 18, 2015, the Padres traded Venable to the Texas Rangers for catcher Marcus Greene and a player to be named later.

[85] On June 14, 2016, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Venable and added him to their major league roster.

[88] On July 1, the Dodgers brought Venable back to the active roster when Joc Pederson was placed on the disabled list.

[97] On November 16, 2022, Venable was hired by the Texas Rangers to be an associate manager alongside Bruce Bochy.