This week’s Bells in the Bigs features three former Bells knocking on the door of long-term Major League careers within the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers organizations. 

Right-handed pitcher Hever Bueno played for the Bells in the summer of 2014 when the Bells won their first West Coast League Championship. 

Bueno pitched 14.1 innings in 12 appearances, posting a 1.88 ERA on the season. 

He was drafted twice, first in the 17^th round of the 2013 Draft by the New York Yankees, and again after his junior year at Arizona State University in 2016 as the 269^th selection by the Texas Rangers in the ninth round. 

He began his minor league career in 2017 with both the AZL (Arizona Complex League) Rangers and with the high-A-short-season affiliate Spokane Indians. He made 11 appearances that season and pitched 37 innings for a combined 4.86 ERA. 

Bueno didn’t see playing time in the 2018 and 2020 seasons as he battled injury but played 25 games in 2019 with the high-A-long-season affiliate Hickory Crawdads and posted his minor league career best 2.14 ERA in 42 innings pitched. 

He saw the most action in 2021 with the AA Frisco Roughriders. Bueno tossed 48.1 innings over 32 appearances and finished the season with a 4-4 record and 4.48 ERA. 

RHP Spencer Howard has become a mainstay in the big leagues. He pitched for the Bells for two seasons (2015, 2016) and the Bells made the playoffs both summers. 

At the end of his time in Bellingham, Howard ended with a combined 2.11 ERA, a 3-1 record, six starts in 25 appearances and 64 strikeouts over 55.1 innings pitched. 

Howard was drafted 45^th overall in the second round of the 2017 MLB Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies, after his third season at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. 

His minor league career started in 2017 also with the Class-A Short Season Williamsport Crosscutters. Howard started all nine games he appeared in and pitched 28.1 innings with a 4.45 ERA.

In 2018, Howard advanced to the class-A-full-season affiliate Lakewood BlueClaws where he pitched 112 innings in 23 starts. Howard impressed with one complete game and tallied 147 strikeouts. 

In 2019, Howard played for four teams and totaled 71 innings over 15 starts. He dealt with minor injuries and injury rehab assignments during the season but ended the year with the AA Reading Fightin Phils. 

Howard made his Major League debut on August 9, 2020, when he started the second game of a doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. 

He went 4.2 innings of a seven-inning game that ended in an 8-0 Braves victory. 

Howard started six games for the Phillies in 2020 and ended up with a 1-2 record. 

The following season, Howard appeared in 11 games which included seven starts for the Phillies before being traded to the Texas Rangers on July 30, 2021. 

He started all eight games he appeared in with the Rangers, tossing 21.1 innings. He also saw a combined seven games of action with the AAA affiliates of the Phillies and the Rangers on assignments during the 2021 campaign. 

Finally, we will check in with third baseman Austin Shenton who most recently played in 13 games for the AA Montgomery Biscuits in 2021. 

Shenton was a Bell in 2015 and 2016 and boasted a combined average of .356. He made an All-Star appearance in 2017 and a playoff run with the Bells in 2016.

After his sophomore year at Florida International University, Shenton made a stop in the Cape Cod League where he played for the Wareham Gatemen in 2018. He continued to put up impressive numbers and batted .349 with 31 runs and nine doubles that summer. 

The Bellingham, Wash., native was drafted in the 2019 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners as the 156^th overall pick in the fifth round. 

Shenton was able to stay close to home and begin his career in the minors with the single-A-short-season affiliate Everett Aqua Sox. He appeared in 21 games and 79 at-bats with the Sox and batted .367 right out of the gates. 

That led him to be relocated to the single-A-long-season affiliate West Virginia Power where he concluded the 2019 summer batting .252 in 119 at-bats and knocked in five home runs. 

At the beginning of the 2021 season, Shenton made it back to the Aqua Sox and appeared in 52 games, 227 at-bats and posted a .295 average with a career high 11 home runs. 

That performance bumped him up to the AA affiliate Arkansas Travelers on July 16, 2021. Then, 13 days and 10 games later, Shenton was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in the trade that sent RHP Diego Castillo to the Mariners. 

That same day, the Rays assigned Shenton to the AA affiliate Montgomery Biscuits where he appeared in 13 games and 48 at-bats and registered a consistent .271 average.