Something had to give with Brayan Bello in the early days of summer.
After a handful of bad starts throughout the first few months of the year were interspersed with a few strong bulk appearances out of the bullpen, the right-handed pitcher absolutely imploded during a rubber game on Thursday, June 4, at Fenway Park. The Baltimore Orioles immediately jumped on him for a six pack of earned runs in the first inning. Bello eventually coughed up another pair of runs—both earned—to end with a line of seven hits and three walks surrendered across five frames. He hit one guy with a pitch, too, in case you needed any extra convincing as to how bad of a game it was for number 66.
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It was the straw (or, I suppose group of eight straws?) that broke the camel's back. Bello's ERA on the year had ballooned to 6.34 across 61 innings following that loss to the O's, which was actually the second
instance in the first half where Baltimore charged him for eight earned. He wasn't working deep enough into games, and he had made his frustrations with that fact clear on at least one public occasion
. He was adamant that his struggles as a starter (and his relative successes as a reliever) were not indicative of any trends, per The Athletic
.
"First of all, just stop talking about bullpen and starting games. I've always been a starter, and when I've been successful as a starter, no one asks your question (about) whether I have to be in the bullpen or starting games. So, just starting from there, just stop that talk, because I'm just having a bad season…I know that I can turn it around."
Not exactly the type of stuff you want to see or hear from the guy who figured to be playing an important role in your pennant aspirations, as evidenced by the eight-figure deal that he was given a few years ago.
CBO Craig Breslow must've agreed, because he made a drastic decision soon after the most recent Bello blowup: the 27-year-old was being sent back down to the minors. As he explained via MassLive
…
"But one of the things that we messaged to him was, when I first got here, he was a guy who had this big personality. He always had a smile on his face, interacting with his teammates and you could tell loved to compete and loved to pitch. And I think we've lost that a little bit where he was putting a ton of pressure on himself go out and perform. So one of the things we asked him to do was to fall in love with baseball all over again—to go down, to compete. But to kind of remember why he loved playing this game."
As we all know by now, that trip to and from Worcester must've ironed something out in Bello's game. He came back with a vengeance about a month after his early June disaster. After surrendering eight earned runs in five innings on June 4 prior to his demotion, Bello gave up a total of eight earned runs in 33.2 innings across nine appearances between July 12 and August 29 (and half of those eight runs came in that August 29 game against the Yankees). As OTM's very own Jacob Roy (probably the smartest guy you could read on here—certainly smarter than me, that's for sure) pointed out a few months back
, Bello was able to tweak his pitch mix and deliver with more velocity—which is especially interesting since he's never been a notable velo guy—en route to cutting his walk rate down and notching his strikeout rate up. It was complete night and day stuff, and it came not a moment too soon.
It's gotta be easier to fall back in love with the game once you're cookin' again, right? It's an unfair game at times, baseball, but it's got to be like a drug once you find your groove again. Bello's a guy who can wear his heart on his sleeve, so it was a pleasure to see him back in his element. Distance makes the heart grow fonder; I wonder if that stint with the WooSox helped Bello appreciate the big moments where he was able to deliver for the big club even more.
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After a terrible start to the season, Bello was able to get his ERA down to 4.33 and his ERA+ up to 94. Those aren't impressive numbers at face value, sure, but they're more indicative of the strides he was able to make after his stint in AAA. He deserves a ton of credit for bouncing back in the manner that he did; I'm proud that he was able to do that for us. How Bello can build on this rebound in 2027 and beyond remains to be seen, but he was able to salvage something from 2026 at the very least. His attitude changed alongside his performance, too.
I thought it while it happened, and it's worth repeating now: Maybe that option down to Worcester was the best thing that could've happened to Brayan Bello this year.
