The Red Sox are deep in starting pitching, positioning chief baseball officer Craig Breslow to leverage that depth as trade capital to upgrade the roster.
One name Boston has received calls on is right-hander Brayan Bello, The Athletic reported last month. According to the report, the Red Sox have “quietly shopped” Bello to gauge his market value and assess what he could return in a potential deal.
On the surface, exploring a Bello trade makes sense, particularly given the premium teams across the league are willing to pay for controllable starting pitching. Breslow spent much of the offseason reinforcing the rotation, signing left-hander Ranger Suárez in free agency and acquiring right-handers Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo via trade.
Bello, 26, is coming off a strong season in which he posted a 3.35 ERA while logging a career-high 166 2/3 innings. His 2025 campaign included a brief stint on the injured list due to right shoulder soreness, but once healthy, the right-hander showed extended flashes of effectiveness. From mid-June through August, Bello was dominant, posting a 2.42 ERA and 3.80 FIP while striking out 71 batters and walking just 22 over 14 starts. Nine of those hits left the yard, but despite the modest strikeout totals, Bello remained effective by limiting damage and keeping his FIP under 4.00. That stretch included a July 8 complete game against Colorado, when Bello struck out 10 batters while allowing just one walk and five hits.
DEALING: Brayan Bello strikes out Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the 6th 🔥 pic.twitter.com/g5WOia6A7E
— MLB (@MLB) June 15, 2025
However, Bello’s postseason performance raised legitimate questions. In Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium, he struggled under the bright lights following Boston’s Game 1 win and a dominant outing from ace Garrett Crochet.
In his first career postseason start, Bello cracked, lasting just 2 1/3 innings while allowing two earned runs on four hits and a walk. He did not record a strikeout. The right-hander ran into trouble immediately, surrendering a first-inning home run to Ben Rice, and threw only 28 pitches before Alex Cora turned to the bullpen. The outing was particularly surprising given Bello’s prior success in the Bronx. Entering Game 2, he owned a 1.44 career ERA at Yankee Stadium, including seven shutout innings there in late August.
His Baseball Savant profile paints the picture of a contact-oriented, ground-ball–dependent starter rather than a bat-missing arm. Bello ranks in the 52nd percentile in Pitching Run Value, 78th percentile in Fastball Run Value, and 84th percentile in Ground-Ball Rate.
Bello and Suárez are two arms that will force hitters to
