Red Sox Shake Up Rotation to Try to Fix Brayan Belo

The Boston Red Sox are rolling with an opener to try to break Brayan Bello out of his funk.

May 3, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Jovani Moran (47) pitches against the Houston Astros during the seventh inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

The Boston Red Sox will look to earn their second straight win over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night, but things are going to look a bit different.

Red Sox fans will see Brayan Bello on the mound on Tuesday, but not in the exact same role he has been in. Rather than getting the start, Jovani Moran will get the start as the club's opener, before Boston turns to Bello, as shared on X by Mac Cerullo of the Boston Herald.

The Red Sox Are Starting Jovani Morán On Tuesday

Apr 13, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Jovani Moran (47) delivers a pitch against the Minnesota Twins in the second inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images | Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

"Chad Tracy announces that Jovani Morán will be the opener tomorrow and that Brayan Bello will come on after," Cerullo wrote on X.

Morán has pitched in 91 games throughout his career to this point, but hasn't started a big league game. The lefty has appeared in 10 games so far this season for Boston and has a 2.33 ERA in 19 1/3 innings pitched to go along with a 17-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Bello has been off to the worst start to a season of his career so far. Bello has started six games for Boston and has a 9.12 ERA in 25 2/3 innings pitched. He's actually leading the league with 26 earned runs against him. That's certainly not the stat that you want to lead the league in. On top of that, Bello has a 17-to-15 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the 25 2/3 innings pitched. Simply put, things just haven't been clicking for the 26-year-old so far this season.

The season in general hasn't been great for Bello, but the first inning has been a problem. So far this season, he has a 9.00 ERA in the first inning of games. It's not his worst inning, though. The fourth and fifth innings haven't been kind to him. Bello has an 18.69 ERA in the fourth inning of games so far this season and a 10.80 ERA in the fifth inning.

This idea of having Morán start the game as an opener is a clear experiment to see if it can reset Bello. So far throughout his career, he has pitched in 106 games and has made 103 starts. So, this is a pretty new idea to him as well. At the end of the day, the Red Sox need to try something. This is a guy who had a 3.35 ERA in 29 appearances last season and was the club's No. 2 starter heading into the playoffs. Boston needs to get him right.