Jon Link, relief pitcher
Could he pitch in the majors?
Link, who’s been around long enough so that he was once traded for Rob Mackowiak, started 2013 as the Tides’ closer. He didn’t pitch poorly, but other right-handed relief pitchers — especially Oscar Villarreal and Pat Neshek — pitched better and he lost his job. He got caught in a numbers crunch and was released in June. The Marlins picked him up in July and he pitched pretty well in limited duty. He was declared a free agent after the season.
There’s no reason to think that he couldn’t pitch fairly well in a low-leverage middle-relief role. He’s too hittable to think that he could stick in a more important role.
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