Red Sox – After another brutal first inning in a spring start for Boston, Brayan Bello was optioned to Triple-A Worcester hours after an 8-2 loss to the Orioles. Interim manager Chad Tracy said the team needs Bello starting to succeed, but Bello has pushed back—saying h
By the time the Fenway Park crowd could fully settle into the day’s rhythm, Brayan Bello had already handed the Orioles a lead that felt out of reach.
In Boston’s 8-2 loss on Thursday, Bello surrendered six total runs in the first inning—part of a game that unraveled quickly and sent another series-ending disappointment into the stands. He finished giving up all eight runs over five total innings.
Just hours later, the Red Sox optioned Bello to Triple-A Worcester, a decision that underscored how far his spring performance as a starter has fallen compared to what the organization needs right now.
Interim manager Chad Tracy was asked Thursday morning about Bello’s long-term outlook ahead of Bello’s first start since May 17. Tracy’s answer carried a clear message about what Boston believes will be required for the team to move forward. “It just feels like for us to be successful, we need Bello to start,” Tracy said.
Bello’s own view of the situation didn’t match that certainty. After Thursday’s 8-2 loss to the Orioles. the 27-year-old said via team translator Carlos Villoria Benítez that he has always been a starter and that the debate about whether he should be in the bullpen or starting games needs to stop. “I’ve always been a starter. and when I’ve been successful as a starter. no one asks [the] question whether I have to be in the bullpen or starting games. ” Bello said. “So, just starting from there, just stop that talk, because I’m just having a bad season. That’s it. That’s it. It’s not whether I’m a starter or I’m a reliever. It’s just, having a bad season.”.
Boston’s actions pointed to disagreement with that framing.
The decision also landed against a backdrop that makes the internal debate sharper. Bello, coming off the best season of his career in 2025 with a 3.35 ERA in 29 starts, has struggled when tasked with starting games for the Red Sox this spring.
Entering Thursday’s matinee game against the Orioles. Bello’s first-inning numbers were severe: he had a 9.68 ERA and a .370 batting average against over seven total starts. Yet the Red Sox have also seen a split in outcomes that complicated any easy conclusion about what role he should be in. In four games where Boston opened with a reliever and then tasked Bello with pitching deep into the game. he posted a 0.71 ERA—allowing no home runs and holding opponents to a .215 batting average.
Those results had made the unorthodox arrangement tempting to keep going. But the Red Sox have decided it doesn’t fit the kind of long-term success they’re trying to build, especially if it means repeatedly reshaping how the bullpen gets used.
That set the stage for Thursday—Bello once again given the chance to try to right the ship while the question hanging over him remained plain: could he manage to avoid the collapses that have come too early in games?
He couldn’t.
By the end of the first inning against Baltimore, he’d surrendered six total runs, putting Boston behind the eight-ball on the way to another series loss at their home ballpark. Across the start of 2026, Bello now has a 16.88 ERA in the first innings of games so far.
After the game, Tracy was asked about what comes next. “I don’t know. We’ll talk more about that,” Tracy said postgame of Bello’s chances of getting optioned to the minors. “There’s topics there that I want to discuss with everyone inside and be on the same page with all that kind of stuff.”
There’s also pressure in the rotation situation that makes Bello’s struggles harder to absorb. Had it not been for Garrett Crochet’s extended stint on the injured list, the case can be made that Bello would already be out of the rotation at this stage of the season.
Bello. for his part. was defiant when he was asked whether he might need to shift his role after another outing that went sideways fast. “I’m not thinking about that. I’m thinking about making my adjustments in the big leagues,” Bello said. “I have a big league contract. that doesn’t mean the bosses will take a position or not. taking that into consideration. but I’m a big leaguer. I’m a big league starting pitcher and I’ll make my adjustments here.”.
But the most immediate adjustment became official for him anyway. The contract language Bello invoked doesn’t control roster decisions, and the Red Sox chose to send him to Worcester moving forward.
Now in the third season of a six-year, $55 million deal, Bello will have to pick up the pieces in the minor leagues after a spring start that started as a problem and stayed one—beginning, as so much of his 2026 story has, in the first inning.
Brayan Bello Boston Red Sox Chad Tracy Orioles Worcester Triple-A MLB first inning ERA optioned