Friday was not the best day for two Boston Red Sox pitchers.
First, Nick Pivetta left a workout with a trainer, though it’s believed to be illness-related and not injury. Then, manager Alex Cora announced the Red Sox will shut Brayan Bello down for the weekend.
Bello, per The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, suffered forearm tightness in his last bullpen session. The right-hander threw a lot of breaking balls, but Cora revealed it was nothing that should set off any alarms.
“We’re very confident Monday he’s back on his throwing program,” Cora told reporters in Fort Myers, Fla., per Speier.
Bello figures to be part of the Red Sox starting rotation for the 2023 season. He dazzled during his time in Triple-A Worcester and made his Major League Baseball debut last year. Though Bello struggled to find a groove early on, the Red Sox used him as a long reliever and he started to show flashes of his dominance as he worked his way back to a starter toward the end of 2022.
The hard-throwing pitcher worked with Pedro Martinez in the offseason and has even been compared to the Red Sox legend. And while it’s not ideal to deal with any sort of injury or setback this early into spring training, it’s optimistic knowing Bello may just need the weekend to rest his arm before ramping up his activity.
