Nationals' Slugger Josh Bell Has Quietly Turned Things Around After Brutal Start

Things may not have started off the way the Washington Nationals' slugger would have liked, but he's turned things around over the past few months.

Aug 9, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Washington Nationals first baseman Josh Bell (19) reacts after hitting a home run against the San Francisco Giants in the third inning at Oracle Park. | Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

With August approaching, it's the midway point and the regular season entering its final stretch, the 2025 Washington Nationals will be looking to end what's been an extremely disappointing campaign on some sort of a high note.

After getting off to a hot start in April, the Nats quickly reverted to the same level of futility they have been stuck at for the past several years, once again finding themselves near the bottom of the totem pole in the National League.

With things going as poorly as they have been this season, it's been tough to find any sort of silver linings up in Washington, but that doesn't mean there haven't been any positive developments that have come about amid all the failure.

Perhaps one of the more underrated story lines surrounding the team over the past couple of months has been the remarkable turnaround at the plate that veteran slugger Josh Bell has managed to pull off after getting off to one of the worst starts in all of baseball early on in the year.

Bell was actually the worst-qualified everyday hitter in the game for much of the first few months of the season, touting a batting average well below the Mendoza line, and an OPS in the low .500 range as the Nationals' primary DH.

Despite how bad things got for Bell at the dish, though, former manager Davey Martinez never lost faith in the former All-Star, and that decision has paid off in the long run. Bell has quietly turned things around in a big way, and currently owns a respectable .233 batting average and an OPS north of .720.

Bell has also regained the power stroke that has made him so feared over his nearly decade-long big league career, currently holding 15 homers after struggling to put the ball over the outfield wall for much of the first couple of months of the season.

It may not have been an ideal start to the year for Bell, but the fact that he's been able to stick things through and overcome that early adversity speaks volumes to the type of player he is and why Washington loves having him in their clubhouse.

One of the reasons the team brought Bell back this past offseason was because they wanted him to serve as a mentor to the young players on their roster, and it's safe to say he's done all of that and then some.

It may not take all the sting out of the brutal year the Nationals have had to endure, but Bell's turnaround is certainly a high note that the organization can take away as they look towards what they hope to be a much better 2026.