HOUSTON — Red Sox starter Brayan Bello made it clear last season that he isn’t concerned about titles such as ace or No. 2 starter.
His focus is more on being the type of pitcher who manager Alex Cora can rely on to make big starts in the postseason. He wants to be part of a World Series starting rotation.
The 26-year-old righty received his first taste of the postseason last fall — and it didn’t go as well as he hoped. Cora managed aggressively and pulled Bello with one out in the third inning after he threw just 28 pitches in Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium.
“For me, it was just more motivation for the offseason,” Bello said through translator Carlos Villoria Benítez on Monday. “Hopefully, during my career, I get to go to the playoffs every single year. But for me, it was more like a motivation and fuel to get on with my offseason.”
Bello will make his first start of the 2026 season here at Daikin Park on Tuesday. He enters the regular season with a lot of positive momentum. In his one WBC start, he allowed just one run and one hit while striking out seven in five innings. The Dominican Republic defeated Israel in that game.
He then struck out 14 in 11 scoreless innings across his final two spring training starts for a streak of 16 straight scoreless innings entering the regular season.
He’s excited for a big year in 2026 after posting a 3.35 ERA in 29 outings (28 starts) last year. He said he knows he’s “going to be successful” the next chance he gets to pitch in the postseason.
“I never pitched beyond the last game of a regular season before so for me to be able to have that start in the playoffs against that team, it meant a lot to me and pushed me to try to be better, to become better for this year,” he said. “We’re not settling to play in that series. We want to play in the World Series.”
The Red Sox signed Ranger Suárez and traded for Sonny Gray in the offseason. That takes some pressure off Bello to be the No. 2 starter behind ace Garrett Crochet. But he has the talent, especially if he regains the feel of his changeup and uses the pitch more often. He also plans to throw a curveball this year.
“I think I’ve tried to apply everything I’ve learned over my past four years here in the big leagues, and I do think this year is going to be a great year for me,” Bello said. “So I try to put in practice everything I learned from last year and also the experiences I had. I gained so much confidence. I feel so comfortable here as well. For me, that’s going to be the key for my success this year.”
Bello’s changeup was touted as his best pitch while he made his way through the minor leagues. Opponents went just 40-for-215 (.186 batting average) against the changeup in 2022-23, when he used it more than any pitch except for his sinker.
But it became his third-most used pitch behind his sinker and sweeper in 2024. It became his fourth-most used pitch behind his sinker, sweeper and cutter in 2025. Opponents batted .219 with a .279 expected batting average against it last year.
Cora said during spring training that he thinks too much attention was placed on improving Bello’s other pitches, causing the changeup to take a backseat.
“When I talk about confidence, last year I didn’t have the confidence in my changeup and that’s why I didn’t throw it much,” Bello said. “But I feel like this year I do have the confidence in those two pitches — the changeup and the curveball.
“The last two starts of spring training, I was able to command and locate my curveball whenever I wanted, in any count,” he added. “So for me, that gives me a lot of confidence to be able to execute those pitches in any count. And at the end of the day, this is all about having confidence and having feel for those pitches. I think this year I’m in a good position to use my whole repertoire against any batter, at any given point.”
Despite his strong finish to spring training, Bello felt uncomfortable with his mechanics during his first start.
“That’s something I worked on a lot before going to the World Baseball Classic,” Bello said. “And it worked out. And also, other things I learned during the World Baseball Classic with my teammates over there, they also helped me a lot to come back and have such a good stretch.”
He said the WBC made him focus more, crediting his peers for helping him to pay closer attention to details.
“Talking with some of the pitchers and coaches and taking the time to watch the game and actually see what’s going on in the game and learn from the game with them,” Bello said. “I think that was the biggest thing I took away.”
Story by Christopher Smith, MassLive.com.