Two days before the Red Sox are set to head to the Dominican Republic for an exhibition series against the Tampa Bay Rays, the team has locked up one of their biggest Dominican players on a contract extension.
The Red Sox have come to an agreement with right-hander Brayan Bello on a six-year, $55 million deal, a source involved in the negotiations said Thursday. The deal includes a seventh-year club option. From 2024 to 2029, there’s a guaranteed $55 million. In 2030, there’s a team option for $21 million with a $1 million buyout, bringing the total deal value to $75 million, per the source.
The Red Sox have long struggled to develop homegrown starting pitching, an issue that’s plagued the club for the better part of the last decade. Bello, who turns 25 in May, broke that trend.
Since his debut in 2022, Bello has posted a 4.37 ERA in 41 games across 39 starts. Last season, in his first full year in the league, Bello had posted a 3.57 ERA in 23 starts through the end of August, before a few rough starts in September pushed his final ERA over 4.00. Still, his 157 innings pitched led the team.
Bello’s emergence as a future No. 1 starter working alongside Pedro Martinez in the offseason near his home in the Dominican Republic has given the club their first homegrown starter since the days of Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz. Given that, signing him to a contract extension was a priority.
Last month, Fenway Sports Group CEO Sam Kennedy noted contract extensions with several young players were underway.
“It is a goal of ours to try and extend some young players that are there we think we can bet on for the future,” he said.
Last summer, in discussing the beginning of contract talks with Bello, assistant general manager Eddie Romero made clear the team’s desire to work a long-term deal with the right-hander.
“He’s basically done what he needs to do and what we would want of a young starting pitcher in this organization and he’s gone about it the right way,” Romero said. “He’s a great teammate and he’s improved the quality of his repertoire, he’s a very hard worker, and he’s earned the respect of everybody here so he’s the kind we want to stick around obviously.”
Bello, who had been under control through 2028, is now signed through 2029 with an option for 2030. Bello, who’d still been in pre-arbitration, has now signed the second largest pre-arbitration deal for a pitcher behind Spencer Strider’s six-year, $75 million deal with the Atlanta Braves.
As The Athletic’s Tim Britton noted in his contract extension projections, the Red Sox likely used Cincinnati’s deal with starter Hunter Greene as a basis for Bello’s contract. Greene signed a six-year, $53 million last spring.
