Struggling Nationals Fan Favorite Finally Heating Up at the Plate
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As the month of June continues to creep along and the All-Star break inches ever closer, the Washington Nationals continue to be one of the more interesting teams in the MLB.
The Nats entered 2025 still firmly in rebuild mode, but a number of their future stars were beginning to find their footing in the big leagues. For the first time in what seemed like forever, Washington could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
As this season has progressed, though, it's become apparent that the team might be a little further along than most had anticipated, as they are creeping up on the .500 record mark.
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Aiding these efforts has been the quiet resurgence of veteran slugger Josh Bell over the past couple of weeks.
Bell, who the Nationals signed to a one-year deal this past offseason, got off to an absolutely brutal start to the 2025 campaign. Things got so bad that Bell was the worst-qualified batter in all of baseball for about a month.
This naturally led to the lineup as a whole suffering, and many began to question why manager Davey Martinez continued to slot the slumping slugger in the clean up spot every night.
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Despite these early struggles at the dish, though, Bell appears to finally be coming around with the bat in his hands over the last couple of weeks.
Homers from James Wood and Josh Bell push the @Nationals win streak to 3. pic.twitter.com/YZiJpziNvs
— MLB (@MLB) May 31, 2025
According to StatMuse, Bell is hitting .265 over his last 15 games, slugging four homers and racking eight RBIs over that stretch. This included a monster three-hit, one-home run performance back on May 28th that powered Washington to a win.
This recent hot stretch has improved Bell's slash line this season to .183/.280/.349, which isn't going to turn heads on its own but represents a massive improvement from where he stood just a month prior.
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Bell's improvements over this stretch have also been a huge boost to the Washington lineup as a whole, as they have a positive record over his 15 game hot streak.
If he is able to continue building on his recent momentum, then the team could find themselves over .500 by the time the All Star game rolls around, which is something few thought would be possible at the outset of the season.
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Georgia native and avid Atlanta sports fan who has lived in the Charlotte area for the past eight years. Got started writing about sports for my middle school paper and haven’t stopped since. Graduate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and proud 49er. Passionate sports writer who has covered everything from high school soccer to the NFL for several prominent outlets including the Charlotte Observer, ESPN, and the Carolina Panthers. Also covered the South Carolina Gamecocks football program as the lead beat writer for Last Word on College Football, and was a contributing writer for several other notable online publications such as Yardbarker. Lives and breathes sports and will watch whatever is on or in season. Favorite teams include the Braves, Hawks, Falcons, and Georgia Bulldogs. Massive Jordan Speith and Rory McIlroy fan on the PGA Tour