Regarding protecting Workman, you can only protect 40 players, and is he one of the 40 best eligible? You have 43 after 60-Day activations, and with the late surge, there aren't that many easy cut candidates. Shelby Miller is the only free agent, and even he has an option.
You can probably lop White, Madris, Vilade, and Baddoo and that gets you to 39, 38 if you decline Miller's option. Then you are talking about Kreidler, and are you going to protect Workman over Kreidler? There are guys like Wilmer Flores who could get dropped from the 40 this offseason too, but you don't have that many easy drops, and there are higher priority guys to protect, including several just acquired at the deadline.
Edit: I forgot Sammons, who seems to be an obvious drop candidate. McKinstry has probably played his way onto next year's team, much to people's chagrin. Maybe you pull the rip cord on Baez after the season.