Valente

Bellozo

Bellozo was one of five pitchers jettisoned from Miami’s 40-man roster earlier this week. The 25-year-old right-hander doesn’t miss a ton of bats, but he shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a new opportunity as an innings-eating swingman somewhere this offseason after compiling a serviceable 4.20 ERA across 150 innings over 45 appearances (19 starts) in the big leagues over the past two seasons.

All players will have the ability to enter free agency, if they so choose. Bellozo has been an up-and-down option for Miami over the past couple of years, and likely will have interest on the market as a depth piece if he doesn’t stay with Miami.

Bellozo hadn’t started a game since the middle of May, but he managed to throw 48 pitches in the first three innings of Friday’s game. He has a 3.99 ERA while mostly pitching out of the bullpen this year. Bellozo doesn’t posses a profile that’s enticing for fantasy managers should he get stretched out for the rotation.

Bellozo walked one and recorded a pair of strikeouts in the contest. He served up a solo homer to Pete Crow-Armstrong in the third inning and was saddled with an unearned run in the fifth after plunking Nico Hoerner to start the inning. The 25-year-old right-hander generated six whiffs on 74 pitches on the evening, posting a CSW of 23 percent. He now sports a 3.27 ERA, 1.32 WHIP and a 16/11 K/BB ratio through 22 innings with the Marlins this season. With Ryan Weathers returning to the rotation this week though, Bellozo could get bumped from the Marlins’ rotation.

Bellozo authored one of the strongest starts of his young career against Los Angeles’ certifiable Death Star, which admittedly isn’t operating on full-power mode due to injuries. The 25-year-old righty finished with seven strikeouts and only issued a pair of walks, limiting the Dodgers to just one hit into the sixth inning. He’s not guaranteed another turn in Miami’s rotation, but he’s probably earned it. He’s in line to take the ball on Tuesday against the Cubs and isn’t a recommended streaming option for fantasy purposes.

Bellozo is a real throwback type of pitcher, albeit an ineffective one. He didn’t throw a pitch over 92.7 mph in this game – which is high for him – and forced just three swings-and-misses. Instead, he just moved his cutter all around the strike zone and forced as much soft contact as he could against this talented Athletics lineup. That strategy will often force Bellozo to nibble though and he totally lost the zone during the second inning where he walked three batters, hit another, and gave up a RBI single to Nick Kurtz. His limited skill set makes him uninteresting for even the deepest fantasy leagues.

He moves into the roster spot of Luarbert Arias, who was sent down Thursday. Bellozo will start tonight’s game against the A’s and probably remain in the rotation afterwards. He has a 2.25 ERA over eight innings in his two starts for the Marlins this season.

Bellozo is off the active roster, and it makes room for Sandy Alcantara after Alcantara was reinstated off the paternity list. Bellozo will likely be back in the next couple weeks.

Bellozo took the ball for a spot start in Monday’s series opener at Citi Field with Sandy Alcantara away from the club on paternity leave and needed 76 pitches to work into the fourth inning. He struck out two and issued a pair of walks. He’ll presumably head back to Triple-A Jacksonville to give the Marlins some additional bullpen flexibility.

Bellozo allowed one run over 4 1/3 innings against the Pirates while starting the third game of the Marlins’ season. He will make another spot start against the Mets tonight and then likely return to Triple-A.