The Washington Nationals have given Josh Bell plenty of time to figure it out, but it just has not happened
It stinks to have to be writing this because I like Josh Bell the person and really enjoyed him in his first stint with the Nationals. He was a fearsome middle of the order bat and a positive fixture in the DC community. However, this is a production based business and Bell is not close to getting the job done.
The Nats signed Bell this offseason on a one-year $6 million deal to be their starting DH. Since leaving DC, Bell’s production had declined pretty heavily, but the Nats were hoping a move to DH would help him. While Bell was a negative WAR player each of the last two seasons, the bat still showed signs of life, even if he was streaky.
Bell’s awful defensive play at first base ate into his value, but as a DH, he could be a positive player again. However, his bat has fallen off a cliff in DC. He is hitting a paltry .151 with a .543 OPS. Bell has always been a streaky player, but he has never been this bad for this long. He has the look of a player on the decline rather than a player on a cold streak.
Perhaps the craziest stat is that Bell does not have a multi-hit game all season despite playing in 45 games. That just shows the kind of malaise Bell is in. He is not even having good games in the between the bad ones.
If you look at Josh Bell’s baseball savant page, it is easy to see his multi-year decline. Bell’s wOBA and xWOBA have gone down every year since 2021. This is also the case for his traditional stats, with his OPS and slugging percentage also regressing every year. It has now gotten to the point where Bell is not an MLB caliber player anymore.
It is sad to see this because Bell used to be a great hitter and still is an amazing person. However, sometimes you have to put the emotions to the side and do what is best for the team.
While the other potential DH options aren’t amazing, they are better than Bell. Andres Chaparro is on a rehab assignment at the moment, and while he isn’t super proven, from what we saw last year he would be better than Bell.
Another option could be to have a rotating cast of characters at DH depending on the matchup. Davey Martinez has already benched Bell against left handed pitching and is using James Wood as a DH. Once Brady House comes up, we could see Amed Rosario get some looks at DH.
There are a number of options, but at this point all of them are probably better than Josh Bell. The big slugger has -0.9 WAR and we are only two months into the season. It is sad to see, but it looks like there is no way for Bell to turn this around. He is supposed to be a big slugger, but his average exit velocity is now only in the 21st, and is lower than the contact hitting Alex Call.
The Nationals organization clearly loves Josh Bell the person, and so do I. However, at a certain point enough is enough. Davey Martinez is going to keep playing Bell as long as he is here. It is time for Mike Rizzo to take that decision out of his hands.