Red Sox Notebook: Brandon Workman to begin season back in conventional closer role

Opening Day is less than three weeks away and Ron Roenicke hasn't announced who his starting pitcher will be for that game.

But he does know who he'll entrust with a ninth-inning lead for that game: Brandon Workman.

After former manager Alex Cora experimented with a number of formats in the bullpen in the first half of last season -- including one which saw Matt Barnes being utilized in a somewhat unorthodox role to get the most important outs, regardless of the inning -- the Sox went to a more conventional set-up in the second half with Workman is the closer.

For 2020, that remains unchanged under Roenicke.

"I think Work, with what he did last year, certainly deserves that role again,'' said Roenicke. "I don't want to say it's going to be exactly every game that there's a save situation, he's in there. It depends on his workload, depends on how he's throwing. But to begin with, certainly he's got the ninth inning right now until something else happens. Again, it could be workload, it could be performance. But he had some kind of year last year and hopefully we have him in there where he's working a lot. That means we're winning a lot of games.''

Workman recorded 16 saves and averaged 13.9 strikeouts per nine innings. He allowed just one homer over 71.2 innings pitched and was unscored upon in 60 of his 73 appearances.

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Roenicke said he's had conversations about racial justice with some of his players and friends throughout the game -- including Jackie Bradley Jr., Torii Hunter and Dave Roberts -- and has followed the developments for the past two months.

"The biggest thing is, we're listening,'' said Roenicke. "We need to listen. We need to pay attention to what's going on. We need to try to get this country back to a place where everybody feels like they're being treated fairly. I think Dave Roberts had a statement early on and he said something good needs to come out of all this. I think everybody feels that way. The more I read about guys in the industry and the comments they make, the more I understand it.

"The hard thing is, we're not allowed to have team meetings (because of social distancing guidelines) like we usually do. We usually meet every morning with the whole team and we're not allowed to that. Where that is and how we're going to do that, we can space everybody out behind home plate. But it's really hard when you're spaced out so far to have a conversation and have those guys involved and being able to make comments.

"But somewhere along the line, we need to address it. I'm hoping a little later we're able to gather more as a group and talk about things."

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Like a few other Red Sox players -- including Workman -- Bradley is going into his free agent season and at 60 games, it won't be a long one. That won't give Bradley long to make an impression or improve his market value.

"It's unique,'' said Bradley. "But it's something that out of my control. It's out of a lot of guys' control. You've got to make the best with what you have and play the cards you're dealt.

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Roenicke was a bit evasive when asked about the status of power-hitting prospect Bobby Dalbec

"He's not working out right now,'' said Roenicke. "There's still some intake things we have to do with him. That's kind of all I can say about that.''

Meanwhile, Eduardo Rodriguez remains in south Florida, awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test.

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Mitch Moreland doesn't believe the lack of exhibition games will prevent the Sox from getting prepared for the regular season.

"Really, the game part of spring training, I don't think has as big an impact as being on your feet in a pair of cleats most of the day,'' said Moreland. "That kind of gets you ready for the season. Obviously, the game speed is a little bit faster. But doing it intrasquad, I think that will get us closer to where to we need to be. I don't think we'll lose a whole lot from not playing other teams. IT might be a little old facing the same guys, but we've only got it for three weeks. We'll be playing other teams pretty soon. We'll get close to what we need done through the intrasquad games and be in a good spot.