The game of musical chairs continued on Tuesday for the Boston Red Sox, as the team tries desperately to find some stable ground as far as their beleaguered pitching staff is concerned. Long reliever and innings-eater extraordinaire Sean Newcomb is off to the Athletics, traded in exchange for cash considerations after being DFA'd over Memorial Day weekend. That deal made room for the return of righty Richard Fitts, who had his rehab assignment from a pec injury cut short and now will meet the team in Milwaukee ahead of Boston's game against the Brewers on Tuesday night.
Fitts threw just 38 pitches in his first rehab start at Double-A last week, so he's hardly ready to slot back into the Red Sox rotation on a full-time basis; the fact that he was brought back at all shows just how dire Boston is to find innings amid a myriad of injuries and weather-related schedule chaos. But his return to the active roster does create something of a long-term logjam.
Boston now has six pitchers for five spots — well, really four pitchers for three spots, considering that Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler aren't going anywhere any time soon. Either way, the battle for a job at the back of this rotation just got a lot hairier. And as Boston's season struggles to get out of neutral, Fitts could find himself unseating the pitcher who once seemed like a future cornerstone.
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Richard Fitts' return throws Brayan Bello's Red Sox role into question
It wasn't all that long ago that Bello was one of the jewels of Boston's farm system, the team's precocious top pitching prospect and someone who figured to slot into the middle of an MLB rotation for years to come. Those years have in fact come, though, and Bello has yet to establish himself as a quality big-league pitcher, entering the 2025 season with a 99 ERA+ for his career.
It's been more of the frustrating same so far this year. After missing Opening Day due to a shoulder injury, Bello has struggled since making his season debut back in late April, pitching to a 4.08 ERA and an unsightly 1.698 WHIP. And if anything, his underlying numbers suggest he's gotten a little lucky: His FIP stands at 4.88, his expected ERA at 5.51. His strikeout rate is at a career low, his walk rate is at a career high, and he hasn't even made it through a full five innings in any of his last five starts.
He just turned 26, and given his prospect pedigree, you can understand why the Red Sox would want to give him as long a leash as possible. But Boston's season is threatening to go off the rails already, with Alex Bregman's injury simply adding more adversity to the ever-growing pile. This team can't afford to waste innings, and right now, Fitts is simply a better bet to give the team a chance to win every fifth day.
It's possible that this problem will solve itself with another injury; Buehler, Lucas Giolito and others don't exactly have the most sparkling health track records. As things stand, though, it's tough to argue for Bello remaining in the rotation, especially if Fitts comes back and hits the ground running.