The Washington Nationals acquired first baseman Josh Bell from the Pittsburgh Pirates rebuilding in a deal.
The team announced the deal on Thursday afternoon. Two people interested in pitching – Wil Crowe and Eddy Yean – will go to the pirates.
Bell, a rare switch-hitting slugger, had a 2019 breakout season that earned him his first All-Star spot. He crushed 37 homers, drove 116 runs, and hit .277. The 2020 abbreviated table was tough for both him and the pirates as he only fought with .226.
All-star first baseman Josh Bell has reportedly been sold to the Washington Nationals. (Nick Wosika / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Josh Bell fills hole for Nationals
The 2020 season wasn’t much better for the Nationals. The defending World Series champions limped to a disappointing 26-34 result.
They had a hole in the first base that was turned down as a mutual option with Eric Thames until 2021, while veteran utilityman (and World Series hero) Howie Kendrick retired. Washington-based Ryan Zimmerman, who signed out of the 2020 season, has announced that he will play in 2021. If he resumes his career it will almost certainly be at Nationals, but at the age of 36 he is not expected to play all day.
Outside of that slow 2020 year, the 28-year-old Bell has had a strong presence since joining the big leagues in 2016. He’s had OPS + scores of at least 108 every other season (meaning his offensive production did so, which was at least 8 percent better than the league average). In 2019, his 142 mark was ranked 12th in MLB.
A rebound could give the Nationals a much-needed mid-of-the-order bat to complement Juan Soto, the precocious superstar who was baseball’s best batsman in 2020 and led MLB in the OPS. The Nationals still have a star-studded (and expensive) starting rotation, including Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin, pointing to competition in a crowded NL east.
The story goes on
Pirates keep building
Pittsburgh is entering its sophomore year under General Manager Ben Cherington and appears determined to continue a demolition that tosses veterans overboard in favor of future potential. The Pirates only left between 19 and 41 in 2020 but saw the debut of promising third base player Ke’Bryan Hayes.
Crowe and Yean, the prospects of joining the pirates, were both top 10 prospects in a relatively weak farming system in the Nationals. The 26-year-old Crowe made a brief major league debut in 2020, allowing an ERA of 11.88 in 8 1/3 innings, and seeing time in Pittsburgh in 2021.
Yean, still 19 years old, won the Low-A-Ball in 2019.
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