Jean Segura has arguably been one of the Phillies hottest hitters over the last week, and now naturally, he left Thursday’s game after taking a 98 mph fastball to the back of his elbow.
The Phillies instantly made Brandon Workman their closer when they acquired him from the Red Sox, not officially in name but in practice.
Workman had a save opportunity the day he put on a Phillies uniform. He blew it and has kept allowing runs and baserunners ever since.
Workman, who has ceded ninth-inning duty to Hector Neris over the last couple of weeks, has literally been one of the worst relievers in baseball since the Phillies acquired him.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Workman's .392 opponents' batting average since the day he joined the Phillies (August 22) is the highest for any reliever in all of Major League Baseball over that span.
He went from the least hittable pitcher in baseball last season (.123 BA) to one of the most hittable pitchers in baseball this season. Perhaps the good six-month run with the 2019 Red Sox made him overconfident in a couple of mediocre pitches and 2020 has been the painful regression.
His WHIP is 2.66. Ponder that number for a second. It essentially means Workman is loading the bases almost every time out. Unsurprisingly, that is also the highest among all major-league relievers over that span.
Workman is a free agent at season's end. He's shown the Phillies nothing to convince them to re-sign him. All he's done here is throw hanging breaking balls, create stressful situations and sometimes manage his way out of them.
MLB
It's just incredible how bad these relievers have been with the Phillies. Workman has been a disaster, David Hale is a long-man, and Heath Hembree and David Phelps have instilled zero confidence in their manager or pitching coach by allowing 11 home runs in 14 combined innings as Phillies. Phelps, at least, took a step in the right direction Thursday by striking out the side in a scoreless inning.
But how can Girardi keep turning to Workman late in games? Last year means nothing when this is happening every time he enters a game.