When you take as many buy-low, bounce-back, flyer chances as the Chicago Cubs do in their bullpen, you know that a lot of them will not work out. Formerly dominant Red Sox closer Brandon Workman was one of those guys, signing a $1 million deal with the Cubs late in the offseason, and it very quickly didn’t work out.
Things just looked wrong and off for Workman from the jump, he imploded in his final outing with the team, and was designated for assignment last week. Ultimately, there were no takers out there for Workman on his current contract, and he must’ve preferred to explore free agency than accept an outright assignment to the minors (or the Cubs preferred it that way), because he has now been released per the team’s transaction wire.
The Brandon Workman Era is over, brief though it was.