‘I’m just having a bad season’: Brayan Bello’s struggles as a starter made it impossible to stay in Red Sox rotation
The Red Sox know what they want Brayan Bello to be.
“It just feels like for us to be successful, we need Bello to start,” said interim manager Chad Tracy.
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Brayan Bello knows what he wants to be.
“I’ve always been a starter, and when I’ve been successful as a starter, no one asks [the] question whether I have to be in the bullpen or starting games,” Bello said via team translator after his six-run, first-inning faceplant on Thursday set in motion an 8-2 loss to the Orioles. “So, just starting from there, just stop that talk, because I’m just having a bad season. That’s it. That’s it. It’s not whether I’m a starter or I’m a reliever. It’s just, having a bad season.”
But the discomfort and confusion surrounding Bello’s struggles as a starter made it impossible for the Red Sox not to option him to Triple-A Worcester, which is precisely what they wound up doing hours after the game, according to multiple major league sources.
The Sox had tried Bello as a bulk-innings reliever behind an opener, and he performed brilliantly in that role, forging a 0.71 ERA while averaging more than six innings per outing. But the openers flopped in front of him, leaving the Sox playing uphill and convincing them to give Bello another shot at starting on Thursday.
It went poorly. Bello allowed eight runs over five innings.
In eight starts this year, the righthander has a 10.35 ERA, the worst mark of any starter in the big leagues. It’s also the worst eight-start run (by ERA) by any Sox pitcher since 1960, when Frank Sullivan posted a 10.38 mark.
Those struggles have both Bello and the Sox banging their heads against the wall given the pitcher’s dominance out of the bullpen. Bello remains convinced he can succeed as a starter, even as frustration mounts with his inability to show it.
“The baseball season is a roller coaster,” said Bello. “I’ll work very hard between starts, but the results are not there, so it’s obviously taking a toll.”
Though Bello remains convinced he can correct course while remaining in the rotation, a perplexed Tracy was noncommittal about the pitcher’s path forward.
Does he think Bello is struggling with his mind-set as a starter?
“I don’t know, it’s hard to say,” said Tracy.
Why isn’t he throwing more strikes in the first inning?
“I don’t know,” said Tracy.
Will the Sox re-evaluate Bello’s place in the rotation?
“You’ve got to keep looking at it,” said Tracy. “Obviously, it’s pretty raw at this point.”
Would it make sense to send Bello to Triple-A?
“I don’t know. We’ll talk more about that,” said Tracy. “There’s topics there that I want to discuss with everybody inside [the organization] and be on the same page with all that kind of stuff.”
Those conversations happened, and resulted in the decision to send Bello — now in the third season of a six-year, $55 million deal — to Triple-A.
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Bello has a worst-in-baseball 16.88 ERA in the first inning. His opening frame was a 40-pitch mess in which barely half of his pitches (52.5 percent) were strikes.
While Bello endured some bad luck based on the placement of balls in play, the Orioles swung and missed just once, and Bello amplified the damage by hitting Gunnar Henderson on the knee with a no-out, two-strike cutter and issuing a two-out walk to Samuel Basallo.
“Falling behind guys, trying to be cute probably,” catcher Carlos Narváez said. “[Bello needs to] be locating from pitch one no matter where he’s at. . . . It doesn’t matter the role. Of course, I know he wants to be a starter and start every game he’s pitching, but he’s got to adjust. He’s got to help the team.”
Bello is not the first Sox starter to endure mind-numbing first-inning woes. In 2019, Rick Porcello became so frustrated with his repeated first-inning struggles (6.32 ERA in the first inning) that he destroyed a pair of dugout monitors.
In 2023, Nick Pivetta got banished to the bullpen after allowing 10 first-inning runs over his first eight starts. He spent time in a hybrid reliever/bulk innings role, eventually graduated to occasional starts, and ultimately returned to the rotation in September. Pivetta hated getting bounced from the rotation, but recognized his responsibility to pitch his way back into it.
The Sox are at a similar crossroads with Bello. Given his dominance out of the bullpen, it’s hard to say he needs to go to Triple-A. But if the team decides starting in Worcester is the best way to forge his eventual return to the rotation in Boston, then the club has a readymade alternative in lefthander Jake Bennett.
Bennett (4.35 ERA in two big leagues starts, 1.60 ERA in Worcester) has been dominant all year in Triple-A. Recently, he’s seen an uptick in strikeouts. Bello has much higher upside than Bennett, but right now, Bennett looks like the more reliable rotation candidate.
Before he was optioned, Bello was asked if he thought time in the minors would help him out of his struggles.
“I’m not thinking about that. I’m thinking about making my adjustments in the big leagues,” said Bello. “I have a big-league contract. That doesn’t mean that the bosses will . . . take that into consideration, but I’m a big leaguer. I’m a big league starting pitcher, and I’ll make my adjustments here. . . . I know that I can turn it around.”
Eventually, he likely will do just that. But for now, as with Pivetta in 2023, the Sox could not afford deference to his preference. Instead, the 27-year-old will have to earn his place back in the big league rotation.
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