Red Sox pitching prospect Brayan Bello is slated to make his Major League debut on Wednesday, as MassLive.com’s Katie Morrison (Twitter link) reports that Bello has been told he’ll be starting Boston’s game against the Rays.
Bello is the consensus choice as the top pitcher in Boston’s farm system, and his big 2022 season has gotten him on the radar as one of the better young arms in the sport. In the most recently updated prospect rankings, Baseball America has Bello 44th on their top 100 list, Fangraphs has him 51st, and MLB Pipeline has the 23-year-old righty in the 75th position.
The Red Sox inked Bello for a modest $28K bonus during the 2016 international signing period, and while he pitched well enough in 2021 to earn a promotion to Double-A ball, he didn’t truly emerge until this season. With a 4.66 ERA over 63 2/3 innings for Double-A Portland last season, Bello returned to Portland to post a 1.60 ERA over six starts and 33 2/3 frames, thus earning him a ticket to Triple-A Worcester. The righty continued to impress, delivering a 2.81 ERA, 34.45% strikeout rate, and 10.05% walk rate in 51 1/3 innings with the WooSox.
Both Bello’s fastball and changeup are plus pitches, and his slider isn’t far behind as a strong third offering. Bello’s fastball has gained roughly 5-6 miles of velocity since 2019 and could now approach the 100mph threshold on occasion, though he’ll usually throw in the mid-90s. Command of that fastball has been an issue for Bello, but at its best, the fastball makes his changeup even more effective.
As promising as Bello is, stepping right into a big AL East matchup for a big league debut in July likely wouldn’t have happened if the Red Sox weren’t very shorthanded for starting pitchers. Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, Rich Hill, and Garrett Whitlock are all on the 15-day IL, plus Michael Wacha is battling a dead arm. This has left Nick Pivetta, Josh Winckowski, Connor Seabold, and perhaps Kutter Crawford all lined up for starts depending on who is healthy and who gets back from the IL in time. (Sale is tentatively slated to make his 2022 debut a week from today.)
Unless Boston’s injury woes continue or unless Bello completely dominates in his first taste of big league action, he probably isn’t likely to make an extended stay in Boston’s rotation. However, a solid showing could certainly earn Bello more starts, and perhaps more time in the majors as a multi-inning reliever down the stretch. All of the injuries have created uncertainty within the Red Sox rotation, and with plenty of questions still existing in the bullpen, there would seem to be room for a highly-touted youngster to seize a foothold on the active roster.
Bello, it’s me you’re looking for
Lol
‘Cause I wonder where you are and I wonder what you do
I give up, why does he invoke Lionel Richie for you?
Cause in his dreams he’s kissed his lips a thousand times, duh
S/B – “Is it me you’re looking for”
Sincerely,
President of the Lionel Ritchie Fan Club
So the Red Sox have lost three consecutive series and are now 3-6 in their last nine.
Can’t blame this latest slide on just the pitching, folks. Cora has to cut the crap and go with his best or hottest hitters. They are just 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 games ahead of three teams that could push them out of a Wild Card spot. This next stretch of 14 games could bury their season.
And BTW the O’s are just 5 games under .500 therefore the Sox can’t count on them for automatic wins anymore either.
Wasnt this name a Tracy Morgan SNL skit at one point?
Brian Fellows hahaha! Dressed up like a safari guy movie critic or something
‘Hi, I’m Brian Fellows and that’s crazy…’
It’s pronounced “Bay-yo” actually. But I thought the same thing the first time I saw his name.
I’m brayan bello!
Shut up bird!
No, I’m Bryan Fellow! That bird’s a liar!
I’m Bryan Bello that bird’s crazy!
Best Brayan I’ve ever seen
numbers seem pretty unimpressive, hopefully he isnt as bad as most of the guys we bring up
1. You seem hard to impress
2. Most of what I see online has him as a long term 2-4 starter
@Amanda – I’m not sure what numbers you are looking at but this kid is an absolute stud. Right now, he projects to be a solid #3 starter and if he can refine his control and add a decent 4th pitch, he has the talent to be a potential #1 starter in MLB. He’s much better than Connor Seabold, Kutter Crawford and Josh Winckowski, all of whom have pitched in the majors this year for Boston. As a Sox fan, you should be very excited that he’s finally getting his chance in the majors; let’s hope his nerves don’t get the better of him as he certainly has the talent to be a permanent piece in the Red Sox rotation. He’s also a prime candidate for the Red Sox to sign to an early extension; he hasn’t made any money is baseball so far so they could lock him up to a below market deal if he pitches well for the rest of the year. Big (young) changes are coming to the Red Sox rotation next year and Bello will be the headliner of their youth movement.
Agreed but let’s see him perform on the stage before talking about an MLB contract.
TF are you talking about unimpressive? The kid has been amazing. Baseball is hard, but I am sure you are perfect so you could do better.
You must not be paying attention if you think most of the players the sox are brining have been bad. Also I’m not sure what numbers you’re looking at but all of Bello’s this year have been extremely impressive.
What numbers are you looking at?
Open mouth, insert foot. Mandy, this guy is an ace in the making.
Hell yeah. Can’t wait to watch this kid.
Will 2022 be known as “The Time of Bello” ??
I am so excited to watch this kid pitch! Bryan Mata was their consensus #1 pitching prospect last season before going down and requiring TJS. Since then, Brayan Bello has just dominated the minors and should be a permanent part of the Red Sox rotation in 2023. Mata is also back from his TJS and is pitching well too. The Red Sox are stacked with good, young pitchers who are all a year or less away from the majors. I’m really hoping Bello does well in his debut and forces the front office to keep him on the major league roster. At the very least, he could join the bullpen and make them a much better unit. He has 3 great pitches and averages well over a strikeout per inning. He could easily replace Hansel Robles out there. Let’s go, Brayan!!!
The words “replace Hansel Robles” sound good to me. I love Matt Barnes, we’re from the same home town. But those two should open a book store, Barnes and Robles. They should be kept on the shelf until they can pitch effectively again.
The number of times Robles has single-handedly cost the Sox a game is staggering. I know Cora likes him, but it’s time to cut the cord.
My guess is that they are waiting on Whitlock to rejoin the BP, then Robles becomes an obvious move. Hopefully, he can put together a couple of good innings so someone takes him off our hands.
Cora, like other managers, makes use of everyone on the 26 man roster. So, he will continue to use Robles as long as he is there.
Yeah, I mean, Robles is the problem.
Obviously.
Yankees are going down!!
im looking at the ERA which is earned run average, see the HIGHER that is means the pitcher isnt that good, YET, can he be? yes, but knowing last years was 4,66 isnt really that amazing, and with 3 pitchers right now hurt/not on the team, then i am going by whats in front of me, when did i say he wasnt good? i said’ i hope hes better than what they have brought up, im sry but whos excited about the guys we HAVE started, like crawford, glad you mentioned him, so far he has a 1-2 record, a 12.66 ERA, remember kids, thats earned run average! and hes overweight. Now again, he may get better, but hes nothing more than a triple a pitcher that looks over matched. Oh, and hes not vaccinated, what a champ!
Well, if Baseball America has him ranked as the 44th best prospect in the game, then he’s definitely doing some things right. And this year, both his standard stats and peripherals are off the charts.
Having said that, my only concern at this juncture is that he only has two plus pitches currently (fastball and changeup). The Royals too have had a plethora of starting pitching prospects in the Baseball America Top 100 in just the last two years (Brady Singer, Kris Bubich, Jackson Kowar, Asa Lacy, Daniel Lynch) who’ve so far been disappointing as they’ve advanced to the majors (in the case of Lacy, he hasnt made the majors but he has sputtered in the upper minor league levels) precisely because they didnt have that elusive third “plus” pitch.
So you glanced over what he has produced this year? Forget the 4.66 ERA of last season what about the 1.60 ERA in AA in the beginning of the season this year and the 2.81 ERA in Worcester he has currently AAA? Obviously he’s worked on his game and figured something out. Dude has a 34% strikeout rate with a 10% walk rate. Granted the control has to get better but he misses bats and can throw 100mph. He needs seasoning I think he comes up full-time in 2024 but he’s the perfect prospect to use options to figure out what to do with. He’s earned this opportunity and both Crawford and Seabold have underperformed. Bello could hold the fort until someone comes off the IL, somebody has to or our bullpen is going to continue to get exposed. Crawford and Seabold not cutting it it’s next man up.
Amanda, keep in mind the ERA you are looking at for last year was his short debut in AA. Look at his high A numbers and they are much more impressive. He had a full year off in 2020 due to Covid so it was to be expected that he’d need to adjust to AA hitting when he got promoted. The key was that he ended 2021 with excellent starts in AA, setting the stage for his breakout season this year. When he got promoted to AAA this year, he had a bad first outing which inflated his ERA but since that first start, he has been dominant and his AAA ERA is now below 3.00 after his first bad start. His one issue is that he can walk a few too many batters from time to time but that is fixable. All signs point to him being a great pitcher once he settles in to the major leagues.
And BTW – Crawford’s ERA in the majors is 5.04 now. Again, one bad start (in his case 2) makes that number look bad but after what he did today he more than cut that in half.
Now that Cey Hey is gone I guess somebody had to take the mantle of least intelligent commenter
Is that clown definitely gone or has he just not been active on here lately?
Girl you dumb
I’m Brian Bello!
i live and die by this team, i have dead relatives that on their graves have red sox pennants, nobody wants this team to win more than me
Amanda – Us fellow Sox fans know you are a die hard Sox fan. We’re just trying to educate you on some of the young prospects they have. I follow the minor leagues quite a bit and the Sox have not had a talent like Bello since the Jon Lester / Clay Bucholz days. If he can limit his walks, I’d expect an impressive debut from him, but even if he gets knocked around, he is the future of this pitching staff, no doubts about that at all. Winning back to back Pitcher of Month awards (May & June) is a good sign that he can perform consistently once he has settled in to his new environment.
Amanda
i live and die by this team
==============================
I don’t doubt your RS bona fides, but the Bello post reminds me of your Pivetta post, where you bashed the heck out of him. Pivetta has looked like a solid #3 for us over bits of three seasons, and you acted like he was awful.
Bello has pretty good numbers this year. A 3.42 K/W in AAA at a young age 23 is pretty good. I don’t see a lot of reason to dwell on a few previous season numbers. Development is seldom straightforward.
Agree with Joe, When a player has these ERAs:
Greenville ’21 – 2.84
Portland ’21 – 4.66
Portland ’22 – 1.87
Worcester ’22 – 2.81
And you only want bring up the 4.66. Then, you proceed to bash the rest of the pitchers who have been brought up. But only single out Crawford’s ERA, because its the worst. I see a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
This is not just Amanda. A lot of people don’t understand prospect development. If you are a 1st round pick and top-25 prospect, sometimes it’s smoother. But most prospects are pretty inconsistent.
Just in my amateur opinion, for a pitcher, the best way to view prospects is the number of big performances.
Crawford’s had 4 big performances, and 3 bad performances. This early, even one bad performance will skew the heck out of your ERA. But the 4 big performances shows that he can get major leaguers hitters out.
Bay-o! Bayeee-o!
Sorry couldn’t resist. Very impressive 2022 numbers for a 23yo starter. I say this as a Yankees fan – the Astros aren’t the only team the Yankees should worry about.
Oh gee, thanks,
So 80% (4 of 5) of the Redsox 2022 starting rotation is down, not including Sale or Paxton. I’d like some concrete realistic timeframes for the return of each of those 6 Starters. Also one for Josh Taylor, a major LHP bullpen piece.
Josh Taylor’s rehab appearances are not going very well–he is getting clobbered. He still has two options left, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he winds up staying in the minors for the rest of the season. There are three lefties already in the pen–Strahm, Diekman, and Davis–so there’s no need to rush Taylor if he’s not fully right.
Horace Fury
Josh Taylor’s rehab appearances are not going very well–
===================================
1-No two injuries are alike, but a lot of times, it only takes one good inning to turn things around. A lot of folks wanted Brasier cut, and now he’s pitchig great.
2-Much like with the rotation and our current crop of kids, I’d have no problem waiting on Taylor. I’m a big fan of Taylor, but Diekman, Strahm & Davis have been pretty good. I’m pretty sure we aren’t going with 4 lefties, and those 3 + Taylor deserve to be on a ML roster. If Taylor returns in good shape, I think it just pushes the other three into trade bait territory.
baseballguru
I’d like some concrete realistic timeframes
=================================
Nothing about an injured player is ever concrete. The latest is:
Paxton-Early august
Whitlock-early next week
Hill-2-4 weeks
Eovaldi-Later this month
Sale-Maybe 7/11
And I want these guys back as much as anyone. But given the recent results, I’m willing to whistle past the graveyard and give the kids some rope.
JoeBrady;
You are reasonable.
During the course of a season a teams pitching staff throws around 1,400 innings. Getting all bent out of shape over a young pitcher trying to get his feet on the ground in the majors by looking at 8-12 innings over 3-5 relief appearances or how one does in 2-3 starts is overreacting.
Over the course of 162 games every single MLB team has plenty that goes wrong. Yet 12 will make the playoffs, 2 will make the WS, and one will win it.
I used to watch Lasoda manage during the season. He’d leave a young LH batter in to face a LH reliver when he had a veteran RH bat on the bench. Same on pitching matchups. Play a youngster at a defensive position in a close game when he had a solid veteran on the bench that could play it. Drove my friends and co-workers crazy. What he was doing was this….
He knew that down the stretch run he’d play the vets to get the Dodgers into the playoffs. And they would. But he needed to know that in the post-season if he needed a young bat in a LH/LH or RH/RH matchup, would the youngster stand in and battle the pitcher? Same as young pitchers at critical points in games. Defenders. He and the FO needed to know what they had before they set the playoff roster. The real world of MLB. is not rotisserie league world that has fits over 3-4 of dozens of a players season statistics.
I was at one of Gooden’s early games with a friend of mine, who is really knowledgeable (in real baseball). It was a bad day for Gooden, and when I raised the question of why they were leaving him in, my friend said that, if they didn’t let him figure out how to win without his best stuff, he’ll never learn how.
It’s the same with the kids. An offering that might work in AAA, might be an opposite double in the pros. It’s like being a rookie QB. College throws that you muscle in, might be picks when you get to the pro level. Often times, as in real life, there aren’t always alternatives to making mistakes.
“concrete realistic timeframes” — Injuries don’t work that way. Healing rate, severity, re-injury. Too many variables. Besides, patient medical records are suppose to be confidential.
Hello Bello.
These do not rhyme. Bello is pronounced “Bay-yo”
So its like “Bay-yo, Bay-yooo, daylight come and me want to go home”?
I hope this kid lives up to the hype. It would be nice to see a prospect pan out.
Perfect spot for where a prospect like Bello is in the system? I’m thinking management is low keying the significance of him getting the call? “We weren’t anticipating bringing you up this year young man, but injuries happen. So come on up and have some fun with it for now until staff comes off the DL”.
Oh. Heads up to the clubhouse attendee. When preparing the locker room pregame meal spread, instead of A1 and horseradish on his steak, Bello does ketchup and mayo.
Bello is 23. Before he turned 24, Pedro Martinez had pitched 453 innings in the Bigs.
Max Scherzer made his first big league start at age of 24. Does any of this mean anything regarding Bello?
Wait! Are you implying that Bello is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer? Is it too late to cancel my 2037 hotel reservations?
Wouldn’t that imply Bello retired after 10 seasons? Hard to get in off just 10 seasons. I think you gotta push these reservations to 2042 😉
Northeasternskierwas comparing Bello to Pedro. Isn’t 10 years of Pedro HOF-worthy?
A Red Sox note that has nothing to do with Bello:
Luis De La Rosa was named Florida Complex pitcher of the week. He’s one of the PTBNL received for Benintendi.
Here’s the link:yardbarker.com/mlb/articles/red_sox_luis_de_la_ros…
It’s why you don’t rate trades right away especially when prospects are involved.
That 10d trade is looking a lot different with Cordero playing much better and with Winckowski now looking like a back end starter. So basically the Bloom trades two year of 10d for Cordero controlled until 2025, Winckowski who has 6 years of control and three other prospects that may or may not pan out including De La Rosa who should be moving up the Red Sox prospect boards. Going to be years before the trade can be fully evaluated but it’s looking a lot better this then last year.
The haters always want to judge a trade like this immediately. There was little chance the trade would be favorable for the first year or two. This way, they can bash the RS with no downside. Then when the kids develop, they will never again comment on the trade.
Don’t worry Joe I won’t let them forget it. Lol. I will be bringing it up for years to come.
You can and you will, but KD, Parks, AL34 & Randy have all disappeared like a fart in the wind. That pretty much goes with the territory. The folks that come in here to have a reasonable and rational discussion about the RS pretty much always stay in here.
It’s a fascinating psychological study. They’d rather be wrong that admit that either Bloom or Cora made a good move. Then they’d rather disappear than admit they were wrong. I am getting an image of Salieri with these people.
Joe – What you said about KD, Parks, AL34, and Randy is 100% correct! They are loser trolls who I muted over a year ago. I do not waist my time on their crap. You are also correct that they disappear! Not a word from them as the Red Sox made the ALCS last year.
I have been a Red Sox fan for 53 years, and Bloom has done by far the best job of any GM in that time. The clueless idiots you spoke of act like the Red Sox should be spending $400,000,000 per year on payroll and have an all star at every position. It does not work that way.
It’ll be a while before I rank Bloom above Theo, but I have under-estimated almost all of Bloom’s acquisitions. It’s still early enough on some of these guys, but Pivetta and Wacha I had pegged as about #5 types. And I thought Seabold and Winc could be quality multi-inning RPs. I thought Davis was good LH minor league depth, and I had no idea who Schreiber was. And never thought Franchy could make the adjustments he needed to make at his age.
I was going to respond to someone else that I am basically giving up opining on these guys.
The Red Sox may be drafting a different type of pitcher from high school or college, but the biggest difference from nearly barely a handful of successful pitching coming to the Red Sox over the last 15 years and a plethora of starters in just the last couple years is the coaching I am sure. Pivetta and Wacha both had utterly failed with their prior club, and turned it into 8-5 3.23, and 6-1 2.69 (not necessarily representative of just how well they have pitched). For the Red Sox to have the Sixth best ERA out of 30 MLB teams is amazing considering how many pitchers they have that were unheralded. The scouting and coaching staff has been nothing short of amazing.
Good point, JC!
Joe – I’m fairly confident one of those has been posting as Spitball.
Bruin – 2 years of Benintendi at around $15,000,000 in salary vs Winckowski for 6 years (he looks like he could turn into a solid MLB starter), Cordero for 5 years (OPS .746 currently hitting better than league average), and three additional prospects all for much, much less money.
With the money saved on Benintendi the Red Sox signed Renfroe who hit 31 HRs last year. They flipped him to the Brewers for two solid prospects and JBJ. You could say indirectly that Benintendi netted 8 players of three are currently on the Red Sox.
IMO the Royals wanted Benintendi to flip for prospects as they were not competitive last year or this. It will be interesting to see what they get.
Red Sox fans lmao.
The Red Sox are 4-0 in the World Series in the last 18 years. LMAO at every other baseball franchise!
Only the Giants are close at 3-0…
Yankees have just as many Championships, this century, as the Marlins. Bully for them.
Interestingly in the same afore mentioned 18 year stretch the Rays have appeared in more World Series than the Yankees (actually, so have the Rangers and the Royals)
Easy now, easy with all this WS history chatter. Depressed Os fan here. Haven’t even sniffed at a WS since 83. Gulp.
CYards – The Os are still better than 6 franchises who have never won a World Series! The Mariners won a record 116 games in 2001 yet are the only team to NEVER appear in a World Series!
@JC#1; Thanks for the boost. Appreciated. Cheers!
Thats not entirely true. ALCS appearances in 1996, 1997, and 2014. Good series in both ’96 and ’97. Not so much in ’14
@Rsox; true the O’s had some more recent success, but I thought the topic was WS appearances only, thus my response. Cheers!
10-4, ERA under 2.5, lots of strikeouts, not a lot of walks, 6 HR’s allowed in 85 innings. There is a lot to be excited for to see this kid on the mound at Fenway Wednesday night.
haim bloom is the best GM /president? no, he isnt, Dan Duquette is, he NOT only signed Pedro and drafted Nomar, he also signed or traded basically the entire 04 team, like varitek , Derek lowe, and probaly the greatest right handed hitter in history in Manny ramirez, he was only fired because john Henry bought the team, to say haim bloom is better is beyond stupid and you clearly dont follow this team and you shouldnt make comments about them, he signed monumental building blocks to this franchise.
@Amanda, don’t know much about Red Sox GM history but I do follow the O’s. Dan did a hell of a job. For 5 years thru 2016, the O’s were the winngest team in the AL and reached the playoffs 3 times. True, Andy McPhail laid out the foundation for this run, but Duquette was savvy via many other moves that small market teams need to make to be competitive.
Dan did a hell of a job.
==============================
Duquette inherited all the talent. In their big run from 2012-2016, there was hardly anyone on those teams that DD was responsible for acquiring. Add in a couple of poor trades and poor signings, and imo, he was awful.
Dumbest comment I’ve seen. Most of the key 2004 Sox were all Duquette.
Amanda,
Most of the 2004 team belonged to Theo.
Schilling
Papi
Bellhorn
Foulke
Millar
Arroyo
OCab
Mueller
Pedro was a great trade, but Manny was simply a FA signing. I could’ve done that.
What are you, 12?
Manny
Damon
Youk
Mirabelli
Varitek
Lowe
Wakefield
Pedro
Nomar used to get Cabrera
Pedro got Ortiz signed
Learn the history, kid.
It’s not even that close. Do a simple exercise. Go to Bzseball Reference, and call up the RS team for 2004. Cut & paste anyone with a WAR > 1.0 to keep it simple. Add up all the WAR from guys 2002 and prior. Add up the WAR from guys acquired in 2003 & 2004.
You can probably skip that since I have already done it for you. The DD guys had a WAR of 21.5. The Theo guys had a WAR of 31.3.
Seriously, let me know if any of my numbers are wrong.