Bello eager to make some improvements

BALTIMORE — With his first full big league season over, Brayan Bello is aiming to take the next step as a pitcher moving forward.

The Red Sox righthander’s late-season fade left him with solid but unspectacular numbers for the year: A 12-11 record, 4.24 ERA, 20 percent strikeout rate, and 7 percent walk rate over 28 starts and 157 innings. It is a performance that Bello sees as a building block but not a destination as he prepares to spend the offseason in the Dominican Republic, where he will mix in regular workouts (roughly every week or two) at the Sox’ Dominican Academy in addition to working out on his own.

“I don’t want to stop working,” Bello said through a translator. “We’re going to try to improve my body and also try to improve on the things that didn’t go well this year to try to be in a better shape and a better state overall when I report to spring training.”

Bello sees areas for improvement: He wants to continue to build strength to sustain his performance over the entirety of the season; he wants to continue to sharpen his slider into the east-west weapon that allows him to work (along with his elite sinker and changeup) to both edges of the plate; and he wants to hone his command of his arsenal, particularly his fourseamer, which is an excellent pitch at the top of the zone but gets hit hard when not precisely thrown.

Bello has made steady improvements throughout his professional career to emerge from an overlooked prospect out of the Dominican who signed for $25,000 as an 18-year-old into a member of the rotation. That growth, combined with the pitcher’s current abilities, makes it likely that the Sox will at some point approach Bello about a potential long-term deal, perhaps as soon as this offseason after a new leader of baseball operations is in place.