When they acquired Witasick from the Cardinals for Dennis Eckersley in 1995, the Athletics moved the hard thrower into the bullpen and hoped he could become their closer of the future. However, he wasn’t able to live up to expectations in Oakland and was shipped to Kansas City in the Kevin Appier deal of 1999.
Witasick fared no better for the Royals. In fact, his ERA was over 5.00 every year of his career until 2001, when he finally put it together for the Padres, racking up strikeouts with a darting 95 MPH fastball as Trevor Hoffman’s set-up man. He was shipped to the Yankees for D’Angelo Jiminez in July 2001.
