Reason for Trading in Boston Red Sox: Brandon Workman to the Phillies

In case you missed it, the Red Sox were part of the league’s first ‘real’ trade this season, sending Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to the bullpen-needy Phillies in exchange for a few right-handed pitchers in Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold. As has become a tradition here at OTM, instead of trying to focus on one or two parts of it, we will do the distributed thought format and try to speed up all aspects of the movement.

• The obvious place to start is just with feelings about how the Red Sox did in this deal, what I would argue is … fine. I said it yesterday on the ol ‘Twitter Machine, but it feels like anyone who has a strong reaction in both directions on this one is just trying too hard. The Red Sox traded a very good reliever and another one that can sometimes be good for a pitcher with some potential, but also a track record that suggests he can not utilize it along with a prospect who might be a top 20- prospect was at one of the worst places in the league. It’s not a steal by the Red Sox, nor is it a bad deal. I give it a solid B-, which still gets you on the honor roll where I come from!
• At least through my perception, for some reason Workman has never really been like a core member of this Red Sox team, but this still marks the end of an era in a way. He was one of two players on this roster (not including Dustin Pedroia) who ran for that 2013 World Series run. In injuries, the momentum of his career obviously sucked away a few years later, but his 2019 was one of the few bright spots of that miserable season. I will not speak for anyone else, but I think I have underestimated the judge’s contributions to the organization over the last decade or so.
• Let’s talk a little more about that 2013, shall we? At the time, it looked like Workman was a big part of the future. After coming up as a rookie in the regular season, he was good – the peripherals were good, the results were not – but he was a big chunk in the post season. The judge allowed a deserved run in seven October appearances, including three in the World Series. They do not win without him, simple and straightforward. He also got a slap in the face in that series because of John Farrell’s hilarious traffic. It’s completely unfair to Workman, who clearly had great moments on the mound, but I think in 25 years if someone brings up his name that at bat will be the first thing I remember.

Photo by Billie Weiss / Boston Red Sox / Getty Images

• I’ve mentioned it a lot in the last year or so, but Workman was one of my favorite pitchers to work on this team. His game was not overwhelming, but the threat of his big, loopy curveball made his midfield fastball one of the best heaters in the league last year. It was a clinic in sequencing.
• As for Hembree, well, the memories are not so fond. I think we (and I sure include myself in this) talk about him like he was worse than he actually was. That said, it always seemed like you were ready to give him another chance to allow four homers over two appearances. That, I wish him luck, but I also look forward to not believing in him for a month every year.
• Pivetta is the piece we will first see after returning for a minute. The judge burst onto the scene in 2018 with big-time peripheral devices that many people were looking for after a major breakout in 2019. Instead, he was kicked out of the Phillies rotation. Ask anyone from Philly about him and you will get strange frustration. There is some reason to believe that his repertoire would work better in the bullpen, but A) that last year has not been the reality-plus, because he throws out bad results from the bullpen, and B ) the Red Sox are too desperate for starters at the moment. He will definitely be a starter the rest of the way.
• Clearly, the Red Sox are hoping to unlock something from Pivetta that the Phillies could not. On the one hand, Boston is apparently not known for its work with pitchers. On the other hand, they have done well with pitchers they get from other teams, with Eduardo Rodriguez the most obvious recent example. The first possible solution to get more out of Pivetta seems to be to use his fastball less. He throws the field 50 percent of the time despite having two effective breaking balls.
• Connor Seabold seems to be the player that Phillies fans are more overwhelmed by loss. We’ll have more about him later this morning, so I will not spend too much time here, but he has been a booster since later last season. His 2019 started late due to a hamstring injury, but he put up well in the Double-A in the second half and then made an impression in the Arizona Fall League. He also got a spot on the Team USA Premier12 roster.
• Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. It’s not an unfair point, to be clear, but I think we sometimes go too far with this. Years of control only matter if the player is good. Matt Hall, for example, is under control through 2025. Does anyone care? If Pivetta stayed in Philadelphia, he was this potential a non-tender candidate this winter, which his years of control would obviously ignore. Again, I think the deal is fine, but I wish we would judge less over years of control and in principle fully focus on only the quality of player who returns.

• Critics of this deal will point to the fact that the Red Sox probably had the best reliever on the market and they made this move about a week before they had to. Again I get it, but I think this is a point that is too much. There’s always a chance a team gets more desperate over the next ten days, but maybe the Phillies will play themselves out of controversy next week and then this deal comes off the table and no one else comes close. At the end of the day, when you get a deal, you want to take it, no matter what the date.
• The Red Sox are obviously not controversial this year, but they still have to play the rest of the year with two relievers who were big parts of their plan. Matt Barnes will now jump into the closer role, and I would expect Josh Taylor, Austin Brice, Ryan Brasier and Darwinzon Hernandez to set up the task force. Of course, many of those guys – possibly everyone except Hernandez – could also be on the table in trade talks.
• Speaking of which, don’t expect this to be the definitive deal made this summer. Other names that could be brought up in conversations outside of those relievers are: Jackie Bradley Jr., Kevin Pillar, Mitch Moreland, JD Martinez and Christian Vázquez. But really, almost everyone is probably on the table at this point.