Some Things I Think I Think: Hard to feel sorry for Brayan Bello until he acknowledges his failings

∗ When Brayan Bello spoke to reporters shortly after a poor outing Thursday at Fenway, he seemed perplexed, miffed even, that there questions being asked about his role going forward.

Ignoring, apparently, an ERA of 6.34 for the season and a starter’s ERA of 10.35, Bello was defiant, adding that his ability shouldn’t be questioned. He cut off a question about whether he might benefit from a stint in the minor leagues.

“Stop that talk,” fumed Bello.

An hour or so later, the Red Sox, instead of talking, acted. They optioned Bello to Worcester, where, like it or not, he’ll spend some time trying to work through things.

The day after, Chad Tracy and Craig Breslow identified some areas of emphasis: more reliance on his sinker and changeup; getting ahead of hitters; and re-focusing quickly when things go wrong.

But Bello’s problems run deeper. His body language has been off all year, right up to angrily waving away Carlos Narvaez for a mound visit in his final start Thursday. He showed up Tracy in the first week of Tracy’s tenure by repeatedly shaking his head during a mound conversation in Toronto.

Bello has a lot going for him, not the least of which is a major league-caliber arsenal and a powerful right arm. But at 27, in his fifth major league season, that’s not all that needs some attention.

Beyond the work on the mound, Bello could use some humility and maturity. Accountability isn’t optional; it’s required, and fast, if Bello is going to turn around his career.

∗ In each of the last two labor negotiations, Red Sox principal owner John Henry had a seat on the negotiating committee and was a key player in the talks.

This time around, Henry removed himself from that committee, telling friends it was too time-consuming. But Henry won’t be far from the collective bargaining agreement discussions.

According to an industry source, Henry will lead the media committee in these negotiations. That position is critical, since a big part of the owners’ strategy is to eliminate revenue sharing and instead, share all local TV revenue.

In the Red Sox’ case, that means instead of writing a check for about $75 million in revenue sharing, they’ll hand over their revenues from NESN and then get a 1/30th share of every team’s pooled local media revenue.

It will be Henry’s job to sell that measure to other big market owners.

∗ The Bruins, by their own admission, lack a true No. 1 center. No. 1 centers are very difficult to find, but now Detroit’s Dylan Larkin has asked for a trade, and well, the Bruins wouldn’t be doing their due diligence if they didn’t at least inquire.

With an improved inventory of prospects, some additional draft picks obtained in trades and even some young players on the roster with value, the B’s would seem to be in position to make a compelling offer. A player who’s netted 30 or more goals in each of the last six full-length seasons is worth paying a premium for — especially one under contract for the next five seasons as a reasonable cost ($8.7 million AAV).

∗ The longer the NBA postseason goes, the more obvious it becomes that the Celtics weren’t going to get very far in the playoffs, regardless of their first-round opponent. The Celts were nowhere near athletic enough or as multi-dimensional as the last four teams standing.

∗ The conspiracy notion that the Pats only traded for A.J. Brown to act as a distraction from the personal foibles of the head coach? That should come with its own tin foil hat.

∗ Payton Tolle is showing signs that he could be an excellent big league pitcher, and not incidentally, pretty darn entertaining, too. That’s a pretty rare combination,

∗ Among the many reasons it’s difficult to pull off an early-season trade: teams are currently focused on the draft; no owner wants to wave the white flag with better than half the season remaining; and the expanded playoff format, which requires only a .500 record to be in contention.

Now, add this for 2026: parity. As of Saturday, there were a combined three teams more than six games out of the final wild card spot.

∗ Now that summer movie season’s here, count me out. I’m not a fan of super heroes, comic books, or sci-fi epics, so there’s little in the local multi-plex that interests me. See you in September.

∗ With the Bruins and Celtics long ago eliminated, at least New England fans still interested in the respective championships rounds of the NHL and NBA have quality, competitive series to watch.

∗ From the things-can-be-always-be-worse department, imagine if the Red Sox had retained Tyler O’Neill? Here are O’Neill’s numbers since the start of 2025: .185/.284/.335 with 11 homers in 92 games played out of 226 games.

∗ I can’t remember the last time a Red Sox-Yankee series had so little star quality. Some of that is because of injuries – the Red Sox are without Roman Anthony, Garrett Crochet and Trevor Story, while the Yankees were missing Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge – but the lineups looked like something you would see in the first week of spring training, filled with journeyman and otherwise anonymous players.

∗ Another lifetime ago, Raymond Berry was the first coach/manager I regularly covered in my sportswriting career. As the back-up Patrots beat writer for the Providence Journal, I would attend practices, home games and some road games, and found Berry fascinating. He had a calm, unflappable demeanor, and while other football coaches were notoriously full of themselves, Berry was often bemused by it all. I’ll remember him as a maverick and a gentleman.

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