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Brandon Workman Elects Free Agency

By Darragh McDonald | August 1, 2021 at 8:33pm CDT

Brandon Workman has been outrighted off the Red Sox roster and elected free agency, according to Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe. Workman has recently been designated for assignment to create roster space after Boston traded for Kyle Schwarber.

After being a mainstay of the Red Sox bullpen for years, Workman was traded to Philadelphia before the 2020 trade deadline. After that season, Workman became a free agent, eventually signing with the Cubs. But the 32-year-old lasted less than a month into the season, being designated for assignment by the Cubs in late April. About a month later, Workman returned to the Red Sox organization on a minor league deal, eventually having his contract selected in early June.

The righty has worked 20 innings out of Boston’s bullpen since then, posting a 4.95 ERA and identical strikeout and walk rates of 15.1%, both of which are uninspiring. But Workman will now head back to the open market and see if he can latch onto another club.

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Boston Red Sox Brandon Workman

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Orioles GM Mike Elias On Deadline, Future
View Comments (42)
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42 Comments

  1. pasha2k

    4 years ago

    Wish him well! Bye

    4
    Reply
  2. badco44

    4 years ago

    Thank god! This guy is not a glimpse of what he once was!

    6
    Reply
  3. badco44

    4 years ago

    Thank god, the guy is nowhere near his former form of years past!

    4
    Reply
    • StPeteStingRays

      4 years ago

      Is it safe to say that you won’t miss him?

      1
      Reply
  4. Grade_1_teacher

    4 years ago

    I watched Workman live at Yankee Stadium last month walk in two consecutive runs. Good riddance.

    4
    Reply
    • For Love of the Game

      4 years ago

      Saw that on TV. I felt bad for him; he was that horrendous.

      1
      Reply
      • Grade_1_teacher

        4 years ago

        It was awful. He used to be good. The league must’ve figured him out and he failed to make adjustments. Oh, well.

        1
        Reply
        • User 4245925809

          4 years ago

          Figure out? It’s pretty easy if watch him throw 2-3 games what is coming, trick was to hit it.. FB high and his nasty curve, which he at 1 time could throw for strikes and last cpl years hasn’t been able to.

          Workman is 1 of the less than a handful of players who throws the curve 50%+. it’s that good. He started that much after his TJ and converted to relief several years back. Barely saw the cutter any longer, which he used to throw a decent %.

          Shame for this year is he *did* manage to regain his FB velocity back to 92-3 range, which was gone last year much of the time, just not able to locate his curve, even FB at all. Shame, liked him his entire MiLB-MLB career, but looks like on a downward spiral.

          Reply
        • GASoxFan

          4 years ago

          Relievers tend to be pretty volatile. If you have a few good years at a high level that’s a good career for most, even more so in a world with out the loogy. The rest of the time if you can be durable cannon fodder you’re thankful.

          Reply
  5. 13Morgs13

    4 years ago

    He was so good for the Phillies last year after the deadline.

    2
    Reply
    • HawaiiPhil2020

      4 years ago

      Sarcasm ….. I like it

      2
      Reply
  6. junkmale

    4 years ago

    Brandon Unemploymentman. I’ll show myself out now.

    7
    Reply
    • VonPurpleHayes

      4 years ago

      I like it.

      1
      Reply
      • tstats

        4 years ago

        I like it a lot.

        Reply
  7. DarkSide830

    4 years ago

    Heck, LHV could use him

    Reply
  8. Yankee-4-Lifer 75

    4 years ago

    Hopefully he’ll sign with a better team now.

    2
    Reply
    • tstats

      4 years ago

      You’re looking to get flak aintcha

      Reply
    • FredMcGriff for the HOF

      4 years ago

      I’ll just assume by “better” you mean a higher winning percentage team currently. That only leaves the Rays/Astros/Brewers/Giants or Dodgers.

      Reply
  9. Peart of the game

    4 years ago

    Better suited for a team that has a bad bullpen or an NPB team.

    Reply
  10. lemonlyman

    4 years ago

    Heck of a picture choice there, MLBTR 🙂

    1
    Reply
    • Peart of the game

      4 years ago

      Which one?

      Reply
  11. Lloyd Emerson

    4 years ago

    Man out of work, man.

    Reply
  12. xtim87x

    4 years ago

    Watch the jays pick him up

    Reply
  13. Pax vobiscum

    4 years ago

    Shows how bad Matt Klentak evaluates talent. He trades Pivetta who’s now throwing meaningful innings for the Sox for Workman who had maybe the single worst stint in Philadelphia that I can remember .

    Reply
    • DarkSide830

      4 years ago

      only worse one was Pivetta’s. (good riddance to him by the way)

      Reply
    • VonPurpleHayes

      4 years ago

      I can’t fault Klentak for giving up on Pivetta. He had way too many chances in Philadelphia. He needed to get out. I expect the same thing will happen to Vinny Velazquez.

      1
      Reply
      • JoeBrady

        4 years ago

        I don’t fault Klentak for any of it. Workman was never as good as his record indicated, but he also should’ve been a lot better than he showed in Philly. He had a good, not great, 3.5 year run out of the RS BP. Hembree was reliable as well. It was impossible to predict how crazy bad they would be with Philly.

        If one wanted to blame Klentak for something, it would not recognizing how bad the Philly BP was in the off-season. When you need to address a problem at the traded deadline, solutions become twice as expensive.

        And Pivetta was effectively finished as a Philly anyway. It wasn’t a matter of whether or not he was going, but how much they could get in return.

        1
        Reply
  14. rocknwell

    4 years ago

    Cards will pick him up. Seems to be a habit of theirs lately.

    1
    Reply
  15. KD17

    4 years ago

    A good GM picks up another Pivetta for him!! The guys makes ONE good move and he can’t repeat it!!

    Reply
    • Cora the Destroya

      4 years ago

      Pivetta isn’t even good. His ERA has risen his last 5 starts. He has a career ERA around 5.00. He’s a #5 pitcher at best, which sucks for us because we have Martin Perez as well.

      1
      Reply
      • KD17

        4 years ago

        pwndroia – What you say is true and says volumes about how bad Bloom has been adding Starting Pitchers. Pivetta is better than Perez and Richards and costs a lot less. Heck, for that matter, he’s better than E-Rod and again he costs much less.

        How the heck are the Red Sox in contention with this pitching staff and why the heck has Bloom not improved it if he’s such a great GM? After Eovaldi, nobody has an ERA under 4.56 and that’s terrible. Pivetta and Perez rank 2nd and 3rd on the staff so far in 2021 and they aren’t good #5 SPs. E-Rod should have been non-tendered to give him a year to recover from his heart problem and then let him prove he was good enough to earn more than $5M a year.

        Bad decisions by Bloom have put this team in a huge bind and I’m not sure JD, Bogey and Devers can dig them out of it and I’m not sure adding Sale will keep the team in the hunt. Houck got sent down which makes as much sense as signing Schwarber instead of RIzzo or the other available 1Bs. As an outside observer it appears the Red Sox front office is in total chaos. Rome is burning and Bloom is playing his fidel!!

        Reply
      • Bart Harley Jarvis

        4 years ago

        Red Sox fans are finally getting to see in Pivetta what Phillies fans got to experience for four seasons – amazing God-given talent and the maturity of a 4-year old.
        For his sake I hope he rights the ship, but this pattern is all too familiar.

        1
        Reply
  16. Cora the Destroya

    4 years ago

    I’m actually upset we cut him. Keep him in AAA. I mean, this guy was fantastic and we have seen relief pitchers go through phases in the past… Kimbrel, Jansen… Was lights out in 2013 postseason… this one may come back to bite us especially if we are picking up other no-names to take his place.

    Reply
    • mhsaltz1963

      4 years ago

      The Sox just added by subtracting. You should feel blessed.

      1
      Reply
    • Horace Fury

      4 years ago

      It was Workman who decided not to go to Worcester, not the Sox. He chose free agency after being DFA’ed. That’s the title of the article.

      1
      Reply
    • KD17

      4 years ago

      pwndroia – Absolutely true. Relievers are very inconsistent and he’s gone through many hot and cold streaks. He’s not a late innings guy because he bounces too many into the catcher but he might be fine in a 5th inning situation especially if he starts the inning. I think as the pressure to win rises guys that have been doing well since Bloom acquired them will start to fail. Ottavino is really the only truly tested reliever that Bloom has contracted. I didn’t count Robles because he’s been with the Angles and everyone knows they haven’t been in the playoffs for quite some time.

      With the Yankees and Blue Jays having added talent and TB already being talented and adding Cruz Boston sits closer to Baltimore than the other three in talent. Yes Boston has 3 top hitters that might be better than any other team’s three top hitters but when you count all 9 spots, 4th is obvious. Pitching may seem closer because the other teams have bad starters as the Red Sox do but not as many. Thank goodness only 12 of 28 games in August are against good teams. It may allow the team to stay near .500 but it’s likely they’ll lose their spot in the playoffs by Sept 1. I hope not since no good draft pick is a likely outcome this year so landing between a good pick and the first spot not making the playoffs is a horrible outcome for a year like this one when hopes got raised higher than they should have been.

      I like your evaluation of Workman.

      1
      Reply
  17. mhsaltz1963

    4 years ago

    As a Phillies fan, I’m hopeful the Mets or Braves bring him in. He was brutal for the Phils last year., hopefully, he’s back in the NL East.

    1
    Reply
  18. badco44

    4 years ago

    Guys Pivetta will be fine, and with Sale and Houck this staff will be better, but the real question is does this staff stack up to some of the NL teams that they could face? My thoughts are NO, but we should have added Gibson and Rizzo if this bunch really wanted a WS chance. Bloom is tight fisted, which could be a blessing in the long run

    Reply
    • JoeBrady

      4 years ago

      Philly gave up 5 years of Spencer Howard. They also got Kennedy, but Howard is not a cheap price to pay.

      Reply
  19. Bart Harley Jarvis

    4 years ago

    Wow! I did not see this coming.

    Reply
  20. nyy17 2

    4 years ago

    He should go into construction. I can see it now. They are down to two candidates – Joe Jones and Brandon Workman. The HR guy says “I think we should go with Workman, he sounds like he knows what he’s doing.”

    Reminds me of my friend who was a dean and his last name was Dean. Unfair advantage but use it if you can. Maybe this advice will help someone like Chris Carpenter too.

    1
    Reply
  21. clarkeinak

    4 years ago

    Adios…you won’t be missed in Boston

    Reply

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