Workman wants to forget miserable 2020
‘I feel like I’ve done the work to be where I need to be,’ new reliever says
MESA, ARIZ. — The final pitch reliever Brandon Workman threw last season landed in the Washington Nationals’ bullpen.
Yadiel Hernandez, a 32-year-old rookie from Cuba, turned Workman’s 90-mph fastball into a two-run, walk-off homer to beat the Philadelphia Phillies. Workman didn’t appear in any of the Phillies’ last six games following the blown save.
Heading into 2020, Workman was on track for a lucrative contract in the offseason, coming off a dominant 2019. Instead, his struggles in Philadelphia culminated in a one-year, $1 million contract with the Chicago Cubs.
“I mean, honestly, I believe if I’d had a full season, I would have been able to right the ship,” Workman said this week. “But that wasn’t the case last year. And that was tough to deal with and put a bad taste in my mouth for the offseason. But like I feel like I’ve done the work to be where I need to be coming into this year.”
The Cubs believe they can fix Workman’s mechanical issues to get him rolling and pitching like the reliever who posted a 1.88 ERA in 73 games for the Boston Red Sox in 2019. Workman’s awful 2020, marred by his 14 appearances and 6.92 ERA with the Phillies after a post-trade deadline deal from the Red Sox, left him in quasi-limbo in the offseason. Part of him wanted to forget the low points of his season, but Workman also needed to reflect and analyze the issues to make the necessary adjustments so the problems wouldn’t be replicated this year.
Workman, 32, had spent his entire career in Boston, originally selected in the second round in 2010. Between leaving the only organization he had been part of and getting traded during a pandemic, Workman acknowledged the transition to Philadelphia wasn’t ideal.
“It was a tough adjustment for me and obviously I didn’t do well with it,” Workman said. “I would have liked to think I would have done better than I did, but it is what it is with what happened.”
Workman offered a blunt assessment, too, regarding the lack of fans in the stands last season, calling it awful and equating the atmosphere to playing a 10 o’clock scrimmage. He wasn’t looking to place blame for his poor 2020, but Workmen never seemed to get comfortable and into a rhythm.
“I’m not going sit there and say you need fans to get adrenaline or something like that because it’s still a Major League Baseball game,” Workman said. “But it definitely doesn’t hurt whether you’re home and everybody’s cheering or you’re on the road and everybody’s screaming at you.”
Workman profiles as a setup man for the Cubs, though manager David Ross could rely on matchups in certain situations. Workman’s experience closing games (25 career saves) gives the team an option to slot into the ninth-inning role if Craig Kimbrel falters. Regardless, Workman is expected to take on high-leverage innings for the Cubs. They aren’t using 2020 as a barometer of his reliability.
“The thing with past performance is that can work both ways,” Ross said this week. “It can really push guys to have a chip on their shoulder and come out and just be dominant, focused, or it can also create a little bit of anxiety of failure. Like, when things do go wrong, you kind of snowball into that. (Workman) is a guy that’s really mentally tough on that, and he’s got a really good chip on his shoulder to go out and be good and wants to be good. I just try to monitor that.”
The key to Workman’s three-pitch repertoire is his curveball. His four-seam and two-seam fastballs are not successful without the off-speed pitch effectively landing for strikes. It prevents hitters from sitting fastball, and his fastball velocity, typically averaging 92-93 mph during his career, isn’t enough to solely overwhelm.
Workman’s curve was off all last season. Opposing teams went 17-for-39 (.436 average) against the pitch with four extra-base hits. Hitters weren’t fooled, especially when Workman threw his curveball out of the strike zone. Although they swung less at his out-of-zone curves than in 2019, hitters produced a 61.5 O-Contact% that was by far the worst mark of his career on the pitch and nearly double from 2019.
The Cubs have been encouraged with how Workman’s curveball has looked in camp and during his Cactus League appearances. Carrying that into the season to complement fastball command would be a winning combination for Workman and the Cubs.
“He’s a guy that is hitting a lot of the checkpoints that we want,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said, “A veteran guy you trust at the end of camp and see things take off when the lights come on when the season hits.”