Virtually every year or so, a hot-shot prospect in the Red Sox minor league system stokes excitement.
Almost a decade ago, it was Mookie Betts, making his debut in June. Not long after came Andrew Benintendi, and the following year, Rafael Devers.
Last season, though it didn't pan out at the time, fans were excited about the arrival of outfielder Jarren Duran just after the All-Star break.
The hope, every time, is that the prospect in question will arrive and have an immediate and positive impact o the major league club and blossom into an All-Star caliber player.
Sometimes that happens. Sometimes it doesn't. But the anticipation of seeing young talent join the big league roster is a great fan experience.
Notice anything about the players listed above? They were all position players, which the Red Sox have seemingly churned out on a regular basis for decades. You could draw a line from the early 1970s to the present day, and connect Carlton Fisk to Jim Rice to Wade Boggs to Mo Vaughn to Nomar Garciaparra to Betts et al.
The number of pitching prospects who break through is a far shorter one, however. It's well documented that the organization hasn't been able to develop starting pitchers anywhere near as well as position players.
To find a homegrown pitcher in the Red Sox system who graduated to the parent club and had success in Boston, you have to go back to Clay Buchholz, who made his debut in 2007, some 15 seasons ago.
Soon, however, that might be changing.
At Triple-A Worcester, the Red Sox have one of their most promising pitching prospects in some time, Brayan Bello, dominating the International League and hinting that his arrival to the major league level may not be far off.
In two starts to date since being moved up from Double-A Portland, Bello (pronounced Bay-oh) has made two starts. Both times, he went six innings and allowed two earned runs. Both times had struck out 10. Despite having been promoted to Triple-A only two weeks ago, Bello is the only I.L. starter to have thrown two double-digit strikeout games this season.
"He's the real deal,'' said a scout from another organization. "He's got a live arm, and four potential plus pitches.''
Within the organization, evaluators can barely contain their excitement.
"He's always been a special kid,'' said Red Sox minor league pitching coordinator Shawn Haviland. "Very talented, but also very focused and driven to be great. From a very young age, he was open-minded and bought into our program, bought into the path that we had set for him. And I think now, what you're seeing is he's getting to the end of the path where he's making himself major league ready. The puzzle pieces are starting to fit together.''
Much of that growth took place during and immediately after the lost COVID year of 2020, when there was no minor league season. Bello bulked up physically, and that strength enabled him to take a big step with his velocity and pitch deeper into games.
At 23, Bello possesses an uncommon maturity on the mound and a mature approach to his game. This is not simply a thrower overpowering hitters with a blazing fastball.
"He's filling up (the zone) with all four of his pitches, putting the hitters in bad counts and when you're doing that while averaging 97 mph on your sinker, the strikeouts are going to come,'' said Haviland. "I don't think anyone expected him to (come to Triple A) and punch out 10 guys twice. But we believe he has that level of stuff and he has the ability to throw enough strikes to do that.''
After the 2021 season, split between High-A Greenville and Portland, the Red Sox worked with Bello in the Instructional League and sent him home to the Dominican for the winter with some homework. They wanted to see him master the sinker, a pitch he only began throwing earlier in the year, and be more aggressive within the strike zone with his changeup.
Ever dutiful, Bello checked both boxes, so when he began this season by dominating hitters in the Easter League, it didn't take long for the Red Sox to decide he was ready for another promotion. Now, along with his slider and four-seamer, Bello has four pitches he can throw at any time for strikes.
"That's exceedingly rare,'' said Haviland, "and it's exceedingly rare for a kid of his age to understand what he does well. When you sit in on his pre-game meetings, it's not a coach-driven process. He sits there and he tells you, 'This is what I like to do, this is how I'm going to attack hitters,'' and he holds strong to the things that he knows he brings to the table that others can't.''
Bello famously got a tutorial on his changeup from countryman and idol Pedro Martinez. But adding the two-seamer last year, said Brian Abraham, the Red Sox director of player development, "really allowed him to maximize his pitch mix and be effective vs. both sides of the plate.''
For both of Bello's first two starts for Worcester -- one at Lehigh Valley and one at Polar Park -- there was an expectant atmosphere. Fans can sense when they're watching a young player with special talent, and so can evaluators who are on hand.
Haviland said the same level of anticipation courses through the Red Sox Player Development System on Bello Nights.
"Absolutely,'' he said. "We have a lot of good pitchers, but there's definitely something exciting with Bello. He's a homegrown guy, he's throwing upper 90s, he's striking out a lot of guys and he has a great confidence about him. As a group, we've all poured a lot into his development and he's worked really, really hard. There's an excitement level, but it's also a pride level. It's like, 'This is a guy who bought in, followed our processes and was able to maximize his talent.'''
And frankly, what's not to like? Bello has the aptitude, the drive and the raw talent to succeed.
"When you have an upper-level arm that does what he does, it's exciting to watch,'' said Abraham. "I don't care what your name is or what you've done in the past, that's exciting to watch. At the end of the day, a lot of an organization's success comes down to pitching. So when you have a prospect or an arm that you feel like could make a huge impact at the major leagues at some point, it's certainly exciting for everyone. With someone with the stuff he has, and the ability to make in-game adjustments and within at-bat adjustments, competes and throws strikes and has the ability to do that on a night-to-night basis, I think the sky's the limit for someone in a lot of ways for someone like that. The combination of strike-throwing ability with pure stuff, that's a pretty good way to go about having success at no matter what level you're at.''
All of which begs the question: how long will it be before Bello arrives at Fenway?
This weekend, the Red Sox gave a spot start to Bello's Worcester rotation-mate, Josh Winckowski. A similar opportunity could be presented to Bello before too long, though for now, the performance of the major league rotation has been strong and there's no desperation for an upgrade.
Still, it seems only a matter of time for Bello to graduate -- either for a start, or for good.
"As a pitching group, if his name got called tomorrow, we'd feel comfortable that he would go out and be competitive at the major league level,'' said Haviland. "Obviously, we still think there's room for him to get better and understand what he does and move his pitches around the zone a little bit differently. But we feel really good -- and it's why we moved him to Triple A -- that if his name was called tomorrow, he could do the job.''
"He's on the 40-man (roster),'' said Abraham, "so when you're on the 40-man, your opportunity, or that phone call could happen at any time and I think we're preparing him for that - whether it be this week or whether it be in two months. Obviously, you can call up guys from Double A, but once you get in that Triple-A rotation or bullpen, you have to be ready to make an impact in the big leagues when Chaim (Bloom) or AC (Alex Cora) or Dave Bush make that phone call.''
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Not too long ago, the notion of a position player pitching an inning at the end of a ballgame was a relatively rare occurrence. You might see it happen once or twice a season in a blowout, with managers intent on saving their bullpen by having a non-pitcher throw a mop-up inning.
Now? It seems to happen all the time.
Take last Thursday as an example. The Red Sox were croaking the White Sox by nine runs, and Tony La Russa turned to veteran utility man Josh Harrison to close it out. He gave up a homer to Kevin Plawecki, but also managed to strike out Xander Bogaerts. It was a somewhat entertaining end to what was, by then, a lopsided game.
But on that same night, three (!!) other position players also pitched in games. On that night, then, more than a quarter of the major league games involved position players pitching at game's end.
Is this the result of more blowouts? Or it something else, where managers are so paranoid about protecting their bullpens that they now choose to employ the practice at the drop of a hat.
Earlier this season, on successive nights, the St. Louis Cardinals had Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina pitch in games in which they led by big margins. Those moves weren't about preserving arms, but, it seems, indulging foundational players at the end of their careers. Neither had pitched before, and both are on record as saying this season represents their final year.
"I was thinking about (going to a position player) twice in Chicago (when the Red Sox were ahead by big margins),'' said Alex Cora, "but I didn't feel comfortable with it.''
The amazing thing is this upsurge is taking place while most teams are carrying 14 pitchers on their staff, thanks to the slightly expanded rosters agreed to by MLB and the MLBPA in recognition of the shortened spring training and the delayed start of the season. If nine pitchers in reserve in your bullpen isn't enough on a nightly basis, then something is seriously wrong.
Then there's the fact that teams now are capable of erasing big leads in the late innings. The New York Mets beat the Phillies earlier this month after trailing by seven in the top of the ninth inning.
"Sometimes, it's very hard to understand,'' said Cora. "I really don't understand why (we're seeing so many more instances of position players pitching).''
I'm no purist and this isn't about playing the game the right way. But there is something a bit unseemly of regularly turning the final inning of games into amateur hour, with both teams giggling over the appearance of an infielder throwing the ball 45 mph.
What was once a rare novelty is in danger of becoming a tiresome mockery.
