A left-handed hitter who threw right-handed, Workman played all or part of six seasons in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates, most often as a right fielder or third baseman.

After a banner year in 1938, when he batted .364 and was named an outfielder on the Middle Atlantic circuit's All-Star team, he made his MLB debut on September 18, 1938, with the Indians at age 23.

[1] But Cleveland would only give Workman one further brief look, at the outset of the 1941 campaign, and that year he was acquired by the Nashville Volunteers, where, playing in Sulphur Dell, a haven for left-handed hitters, he would enjoy his greatest success later in the 1940s.

The Braves' regular right fielder in 1942, veteran future Hall of Famer Paul Waner, was released in January, and Workman was given the starting job, which he held in 1943 and 1944.

With the Braves continuing to lose players to World War II service, a vacancy opened at third base when Dee Phillips joined the United States Army.