The Red Sox are likely done with big spending on the free-agent market, but they’re close to making a significant financial commitment to a burgeoning homegrown star.

Multiple industry sources confirmed Alex Speier’s report for the Boston Globe, that the Sox are in “advanced talks” with Brayan Bello on a contract extension that would keep the homegrown starting pitcher in Boston beyond 2028, the final year of club control. One source believes Bello’s deal is already done, pending a physical, or very close.

It’s only been two weeks since Bello confirmed that his agents were discussing an extension with the club, and said they were “mas or menos” – Spanish for ‘more or less’ – close to an agreement. However, a source told the Herald that this has been a long time coming, with the Sox approaching Bello, Triston Casas, and other unnamed players during Chaim Bloom’s tenure. (Casas confirmed his own extension talks days earlier, but said there had been “nothing enticing” offered at that point.)

One source with knowledge of the negotiations cited Spencer Strider’s and Hunter Greene’s six-year, pre-arbitration extensions last year as relevant benchmarks, and suggested Bello will end up signing for somewhere in between; the Atlanta Braves will pay Strider $75 million, while Greene is getting $54 million from the Cincinnati Reds. These contracts carry AAVs of $12.5 and $8.83 million, respectively, making them very comfortable models for Boston from both overall financial commitment and luxury tax standpoints.

From a payroll-planning standpoint, there are several ways for the Red Sox to approach a long-term commitment to Bello (or others). They could sign him to a one-year deal for this year and have the extension begin next season, as they did with Rafael Devers. The third baseman’s franchise-record 10-year, $313.5 million pact was agreed to last January but begins this year. His $17.5 million ’23 salary, agreed to in his final year of arbitration eligibility, helped the Red Sox reset their luxury tax penalties after exceeding the Competitive Balance Threshold the year before. For the next decade the average annual value (AAV) of Devers’ contract puts $29.15 million on the luxury tax payroll.

However, having Bello’s contract begin this year would keep the AAV down over the duration of the contract, which would help the Sox dole out further extensions to other members of the young core whom they’d like to retain. The Sox have ample financial flexibility to do that – Spotrac estimates their tax payroll to be less than $200 million – but ownership has set their own budgetary limitations under this year’s $237 million threshold.