FORT MYERS, Fla. — Fresh off a contract extension, Brayan Bello earned the 2024 Opening Day start for the Boston Red Sox. It was a season in which he finished with 30 starts for the first time in his career, a burgeoning example of homegrown pitching talent.
But not much about Bello’s career in Boston has been a linear path. After the addition of the staff’s bona fide ace, Garrett Crochet, last offseason, Bello found himself in trade rumors this winter as the Red Sox continued to front-load the rotation with veterans Sonny Gray and Ranger Suárez. It bumped Bello back to the fourth spot in a rotation that’s projected to be among the best in baseball.
Bello is using all of that as quiet motivation, including what he can glean from one of Boston’s additions.
He’s already worked alongside Suárez, who features a similarly deep arsenal and a filthy changeup, a pitch Bello continues to hone. The two compared notes about changeup grips.
“I’m somebody who always wants to learn and improve, and I was playing catch with (Suárez) and telling him I was trying a new grip on my changeup, asking for some advice on how to release the ball,” Bello said through an interpreter. “I feel like with him this year, I’m going to learn a lot from him and the other guys, and I’m very excited for this season.”
Bello added strength and arrived early to camp before he heads to the World Baseball Classic to pitch for the Dominican Republic. He’s also working to bring back the curveball he had early in his career, a pitch that will deepen an already complex arsenal that includes a four-seamer, sinker, cutter, sweeper/slider and changeup.
Brayan Bello has made at least 28 starts and logged at least 155 innings in each of the last three seasons. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
“He’s gross; I came away with that impression,” said Gray, a 14th-year vet who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. “I saw that he was throwing a curveball. I didn’t know that’s new. The sinker is disgusting. … For me, it was like, that’s just what he does (on the mound). He looked really good today.”
“He has so many pitches compared to three, four years ago,” manager Alex Cora said. “He’s still developing. One thing about Bello, he got here in (2022 during) a tough time for the organization, and he learned the hard way. But little by little, he’s becoming very reliable.”
Bello was still learning his craft when he debuted as a 23-year-old in 2022, burdened by the pressure of comparisons to Pedro Martinez. But the Red Sox were desperate for pitching and thrust him into the majors perhaps before he was ready. Ever since, there have been equal stretches of brilliance and mediocrity.
Last year, he felt that too many of his breaking pitches looked similar. Pitching coach Andrew Bailey tried to work with him on those distinct grips last season, but Bello struggled to find a rhythm in between starts.
“Players develop at their own cadence,” Bailey said. “Brayan got to a point where he started to understand how the horizontal break on a sweeper can play better versus righties and how depth can play better versus lefties. And we got to a point where he was able to kind of manipulate the one grip that he did throw with the (sweeper), and if you look at his break chart, from last year, it looks like a big blob of sweepers or sliders. So now we’re just differentiating the grips.”
“Early (in) my career, I threw (a curveball) but didn’t have the right shape or arm slot to throw it, so it would mesh with other pitches that were better at the time,” Bello said. “So I just stayed with the pitches that got me to the big leagues.”
With more experience and a better feel for how his body works, Bello feels more confident adding another element to the mix. Commanding counts and limiting walks to avoid lengthy at-bats will always be key. But an expanded repertoire should give him one more weapon to escape jams and elevate his arsenal as he seeks to round out the back end of a strong rotation.
“One of the things that I took from last year and to this year is how aggressive I was with my pitches,” Bello said. “I’m going to build off of that this year, how aggressive I am with my pitches and how much improved those pitches are from last year. I feel there’s a lot to build off from last year.”
Sonny Gray’s first live batting practice and more camp notes
• Though he’s refining his changeup, Gray declined to discuss a few other things he’s working on. He did throw a few pitches (either his sweeper or curveball, Bailey said) that clocked in with spin rates of 2,800 to 2,900 rpm. The average spin rate across the league for those pitches is roughly 2,400. Gray boasted when he signed that he could spin the ball better than anyone in the league, and showed it Thursday.
Gray’s spin rate off the charts on a few pitches hitting 2800-2900 pic.twitter.com/rYRlQCQhkT
— Jen McCaffrey (@jcmccaffrey) February 12, 2026
“I do like to spin the ball, yes, maybe it’s little itty bitty hands,” he joked. “That’s what they always say, you’ve got little hands, you can spin the ball better. I don’t know if it’s true or not. It was for me.”
Gray also said he wasn’t surprised his comments in November about never wanting to play for the Yankees took off. But he also said he’s learned to tune out social media.
“I’ve also learned that no matter what I say or no matter what I do, people are going to take it and use it however they want to use it, and I’m OK with that at this point,” he said. “I learned a lot by going through all of the years that I’ve gone through this, and I’ve learned to stay away from it. I’ve learned to just be myself, be open, not try to shy away from anything, but also don’t follow it after that.”
• Cora has yet to determine his rotation mix behind Opening Day starter Crochet. Crochet and Suárez are lefties, while Gray and Bello are righties.
“We can go left, right, left, right or left, left, right, right,” Cora said. “Sonny and Bello are similar (pitch mix-wise). Suárez and Crochet are different (low velocity vs. high velocity). But it’s kind of like we got some versatile pitchers that we can set up the rotation the way we want it.”
Cora also noted the importance of having another 200-strikeout pitcher in Gray in the rotation alongside Crochet. The fifth spot is still up for grabs — Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval are scheduled for mound sessions Friday.
• Cora said the arthroscopic surgery Caleb Durbin had on his elbow in October would not affect whether he plays second or third base. Cora said he heard Durbin had not yet met Dustin Pedroia and gave Durbin’s number to the 2008 American League MVP so they could connect. Pedroia is not scheduled to come to Red Sox camp this spring because of other commitments.
• With Arizona outfielder Corbin Carroll out of the WBC due to injury, Roman Anthony is in the mix for his roster spot on Team USA. Cora said there’s been no determination yet if Anthony will get the call, but he would support it if that’s the case.
• The Red Sox released their spring training broadcast schedule. Of 34 games this spring, 24 will be broadcast on NESN or NESN+. ESPN will broadcast the game against the Yankees on March 4. WEEI will carry 31 games this spring.