Key starter lands on IL as injuries pile up for Red Sox

The Red Sox announced that right-hander Brayan Bello was placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 21, with right lat tightness. Right-hander Zack Kelly has been recalled in a corresponding move.

The news is unfortunate for both Bello and the Sox. He cemented himself in the club’s rotation plans last year by tossing 157 innings over 28 starts with a 4.24 earned run average. His 19.8% strikeout rate was subpar, but he only walked 6.7% of batters and kept 56.2% of balls in play on the ground.

The Sox clearly have faith in Bello’s future and put their money on it by signing him to a $55M extension in March. Since Bello had generally had stronger strikeout numbers in the minors, the club likely hoped there was still room for him to grow as a pitcher. He showed some progress here in early 2024, striking out 23.6% of batters faced through his first five starts.

Unfortunately, that progress will now be put on hold, as Bello is the latest in a line of Boston players to get hurt. Lucas Giolito required season-ending surgery in the offseason, and pitchers like Nick Pivetta, Garrett Whitlock, Bryan Mata and Chris Murphy have also landed on the injured list.

Now that Bello is joining that group, the Boston rotation is down to Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Cooper Criswell and Josh Winckowski and they will have to figure out who will step up. Veteran Chase Anderson is with the club and has been throwing multi-inning stints out of the bullpen, so he would be one option. Naoyuki Uwasawa is on the 40-man roster and is currently on an optional assignment. The Sox recently acquired Vladimir Gutierrez, though he just made a one-inning bullpen appearance at Triple-A on Sunday, so perhaps they view him more as a reliever.

The club’s starters have a collective 1.80 ERA this year, leading the majors. That’s a big reason they’ve managed to keep pace in the highly competitive American League East. However, the mounting injuries will obviously make it challenging to maintain that kind of performance going forward. The club hasn’t yet provided any estimates for how long they expect Bello to be out of action, but more information should be forthcoming today or in the coming days.