How should the Red Sox use Brayan Bello down the stretch?

BOSTON, MA - AUGUST 09: Brayan Bello #66 of the Boston Red Sox pitches during the game between the Athletics and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday, August 9, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Joe Sullivan/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images

Brayan Bello is almost certainly not going to start a game for the rest of the season, which makes sense given the old “if it ain’t broke” paradigm.* He’s had tremendous success in the bullpen, and you don’t want to mess with that.

(* It still very much does NOT make sense to me that a pitcher with over 100 games started in the big leagues has suddenly lost the ability to pitch in the first inning and I remain certain that his season represents random statistical noise, but I digress.)

But even granting that he’ll be used in relief for the rest of the season, there remains the question of how he’ll be used in relief. Initially, Chad Tracy used him in the neo-traditional bulk reliever role. He’s entered the game in the second inning 5 times this season and has more or less thrived each time. But lately he’s been used simply as a long man, not necessarily piggybacking off a starter but coming in whenever the team needed innings.

He relieved the ineffective Eduardo Rivera in the first inning on July 22 and pitched through the fifth. Eight days later he finished off the Dodgers with four shutout innings to end the game. Five days later he threw three meaningless innings to cap off a blowout. At this point, it looked the plan would be to save him for another forthcoming bulk appearance, but he was needed for two innings in the instant-classic against the White Sox on Thursday, which had the knock-on effect of him only being available for four innings yesterday. And now, having thrown nine innings in six days with an arm that’s not used to pitching so frequently, he’s probably going to have to be glued to the bench for a while, which obviously hamstrings the pen.

So how do the Sox best use him going forward? There’s an open spot in the rotation and piggybacking him with an opener effectively fills it. But doing so limits the team’s ability to use him more flexibly when the need arises, as it did last week. And all of this is coming during a stretch when the Sox play 22 games in 23 days with a pitching staff that’s teetering on the brink.

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