Red Sox Could Cut Ties With $55 Million Starter After Ranger Suárez Deal

It was clearly a possibility that the Boston Red Sox could add to the rotation coming into the offseason. But adding three major league starters wasn't on many folks' radars.

On Wednesday, the Red Sox reportedly agreed to a five-year, $130 million deal for Ranger Suárez, the former All-Star starting pitcher of the Philadelphia Phillies. Suárez joins newcomers Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo in what is suddenly a loaded rotation behind Cy Young runner-up Garrett Crochet.

However, Boston still needs offense after losing third baseman Alex Bregman to the Chicago Cubs. It appears the Sox now have the pitching depth to trade someone, but if that becomes their new strategy, the obvious question is who gets moved.

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Could Red Sox move on from Brayan Bello?

The most obvious candidates to be traded if the Red Sox want a true impact bat are lefties Connelly Early and Payton Tolle, both of whom maintained prospect status after debuting in the final month of the regular season this year.

However, Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic also hinted at the notion that Brayan Bello could be traded heading into the third year of his six-year, $55 million extension in a column on Wednesday.

"While the Red Sox like Bello, the upside of Early and Tolle may be more enticing. Bello has yet to reach his ceiling with the club and is set to make roughly $9 million in 2026," McCaffrey wrote.

"As it currently stands with Suárez’s $26 million average annual salary, the Red Sox payroll has pushed past the second luxury tax bracket of $264 million to roughly $270 million. Trading Bello could bring the team just under that $264 million threshold, but they’d also have to account for any salary owed to an incoming player."

The Red Sox worrying about the second luxury tax threshold at this point would surely anger a fan base that just wants a big-market team to act like it. With that said, there's a clean logic to giving up Bello rather than one of the younger arms with a higher ceiling.

Yes, Bello posted a career-best 3.35 ERA this past season, but all one had to see was Alex Cora coming to the mound to yank him 28 pitches into a start in the playoffs to know the Red Sox still didn't particularly trust the 26-year-old to be a true rotation staple.

The question, though, is which position players Bello might grant the Red Sox access to on the trade market.

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