Bello not in ‘any pain’ amid brief shutdown
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Less than 24 hours after Alex Cora announced that Brayan Bello is shut down for the weekend with forearm soreness, the young pitcher offered an update of his own.
Through translator Carlos Villoria Benítez, Bello explained, “I didn’t feel any pain. I just felt tight, and I really didn’t want to force it.”
And there’s absolutely no reason to force it when it’s the first week of spring training, he’s competing for a spot in the rotation, and Pedro Martinez thinks he can win a Cy Young award one day.
As of Friday, the Red Sox weren’t planning on having any imaging done, and Cora anticipated that Bello would resume his throwing program on Monday.
Bello debuted on July 6, 2022, and posted a 4.71 ERA, 2.94 FIP, and 1.779 WHIP across 57
⅓ innings, but showed serious improvement as the season went on. Over his final six starts of the season between September-october, he compiled a 2.59 ERA and 2.70 FIP across 31 ⅓ innings. He then spent the offseason working with Martinez at the Hall of Famer’s home in their native Dominican Republic.
Red Sox lifers: In the last three years, the Red Sox parted ways with two players who could’ve been Red Sox for life, and kept one. Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts are gone, Rafael Devers is here to stay. How many other homegrown players will follow the latter?
It was on Cora’s mind when he asked Dustin Pedroia to come to Fort Myers for the weekend. Even though Pedroia’s career was cut short, he’s a Red Sox lifer, from his selection in the second round of the 2004 draft, until what turned out to be his final game in 2019. He remains affiliated with the organization, was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame last year, and says he still watches games.
In today’s game, playing for one franchise from start to finish is rare, and doing so from the draft even more so. “This whole thing about playing with one franchise, I believe the only guy that is gonna do here is Raffy [Devers] probably. Well, the young guys maybe, but for sure it’s Raffy,” Cora said on Saturday. Speaking of lifers, or lack thereof, how much does Pedroia think Bogaerts’ absence be felt this year? “Yeah, he’s been here for a while,” the former second baseman said, “But that’s how the sport is, you know, any sport. You know, you lose guys, or guys go somewhere else. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. You gotta find a way to, somebody to fill that role and play.”
“Somebody” will be Kiké Hernández, Yu Chang, Christian Arroyo, and potentially, Adalberto Mondesí (once he’s healthy) and/ or Niko Goodrum. Trevor Story is optimistic about returning this year, but a full season on the sidelines can’t be ruled out, either.
Blast from the past: Jose Canseco wasn’t with the Red Sox for very long, but he’s still no fan of Yankees. Two, in particular, are frequently mentioned in his eclectic tweets: Alex ‘A-rod’ Rodriguez and Aaron Judge.
Of his 17-year major league career, Canseco only spent the ‘95 and ‘96 seasons in Boston. By his own admission, his was a career tainted by performance-enhancing substances.
Nowadays, the former slugger is frequently online, often tweeting about baseball. This week challenged Judge to a hitting contest. “Also Ryan judge I doubt you could even come close to hitting a softball further than I can I may even be able to hit a baseball further than you can,” Canseco wrote.
Twitter users got a kick out of the misnomer, especially since it came on the heels of MLB Network contributor Jon Heyman tweeting that ‘Arson Judge’ was signing with the Giants in December.