Brayan Bello’s Learning Curve Is Over, Red Sox Youngster Is Here

There aren’t a ton of things to feel happy about when it comes to the Boston Red Sox.

Alex Cora’s squad hasn’t been able to find their footing as we approach the midway point of the Major League Baseball season. There have been crushing injuries to Chris Sale, Adam Duvall and Trevor Story at different points in the season. The Red Sox defense has ranked in the bottom half all year long. There has been zero continuity between offensive success and pitching success.

Those things have been the driving force behind a 34-35 record through 69 games. It hasn’t all been bad, however.

While fans in Boston have winced at the negatives, Brayan Bello has quietly become the pitcher everyone envisioned him being when he was sailing through the Red Sox’s minor league system as its top pitching prospect.

In a way, he has arrived.

Bello has a 3.78 ERA across 10 starts this season, picking up 49 strikeouts across 52 1/3 innings pitched while bringing his WHIP down 0.441 points and increasing his strikeout-to-walk rate by 0.84 points. His improvements have come in nearly every statistical category, but that’s not the biggest thing that has come from Bello. He was issued a challenge in April, being sent down to Triple-A Worcester after a few poor outings to start the season, and the demotion lit a fire under the 24-year-old — sparking what has been a tremendous stretch through the last two months.

In his last eight starts, Bello has a 2.80 ERA in 45 innings pitched, good for the second best mark on the team behind James Paxton. The youngster has rebuilt his approach, attacking the zone with his 98MPH fastball and using his best pitch — the changeup — to record outs. He hasn’t given up a single home run in his last three starts, a stark contrast from the seven he gave up in his first seven outings.

The growth has been evident in all aspects for the Red Sox’s dazzling young starter, He has put on 25 pounds from his Major League debut, which took place on July 6, 2022, and has reworked the way he goes about things. The pressure of facing big boy lineups like that of the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, something that got to him as a rookie, no longer appears to be an issue. He did shove it down the Yankees’ throats in New York, after all.

Are we claiming Bello is in line to be a Cy Young contender? No. There’s just an undeniable quality that he has, and has finally started to continuously put on display in his second big league season.

Bello is here, and he’s pretty dang good.