WEEI podcast pitches Red Sox-Brayan Bello trade that might be perfect

The winter of 2025-26 has seen a lot of action out of the Boston Red Sox front office. The team has made nearly a dozen trades while free agent signings of MLB talent are still yet to begin (including bringing back Alex Bregman, the consensus man-for-the-job at Fenway’s hot corner).

Craig Breslow has brought in some new talent to take to the mound, but he has yet to find the true No. 2 starter that has long been a point of focus.

Breslow’s splashy exchange for Willson Contreras may have signaled an interesting new direction for the team’s priorities, both offensively and on the mound. The three pitchers sent away to St. Louis in exchange for the catcher turned first baseman all exhibited pedestrian swing and miss stuff. In noticing this trend, another pitcher comes to mind as a potential trade piece.

While Breslow seems adamant about not giving up talent from the team’s stacked (and crowded) outfield pool, trading Brayan Bello may be in the cards, especially with new details emerging that Boston has been "quietly shopping" him this winter. In fact, Pat Brown, the “Play Tessie” podcast co-host, offered an interesting take on this new turn of events.

Pat Brown suggests a path to netting Freddy Peralta in a Boston-Milwaukee trade package

Brown highlighted Freddy Peralta as the big fish that might be attainable if Breslow is willing to move Bello. Bello has four years left on his $55 million, team friendly contract. Moreover, the next two years are both slated at sub-$10 million paychecks, making him a tantalizing option for a team seeking mobility.

The Brewers, Brown says, “historically trade rental starters rather than pay them long-term.” Bundling Bello, a proven force on the mound, with shortstop Dorian Soto, Boston’s No. 9 prospect and aged just 17, would deliver plenty of right-now pitching power and future upside to move the needle.

Brown also suggests that this combination would include reliever Abner Uribe to balance the trade (especially considering Peralta’s status as a single year guarantee). Uribe, according to Brown, could slot in ahead of Aroldis Chapman and perhaps take over the closing role once the fireballer decides to hang it up.

Uribe is under team control for another five years, and owns 100 MPH sinker that’s absolutely devastating to hitters. In 2025, he came back from a torn meniscus to post a 1.67 ERA with 90 strikeouts in 75.1 innings of work, not to mention a Baseball Savant page littered with high percentile metrics. This proposal feels heavily tilted in Boston’s favor in the present, but Soto offers excellent long term potential and Bello provides significant value as either a long term fixture in Milwaukee’s rotation or as a potential trade piece again at some point in the future after delivering multiple, inexpensive seasons of quality pitching.