San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Bell relishes utility role as coach
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — At Astros camp this spring, the newest coach is constantly moving. Catching throws at first base in a pitchers’ fielding drill. Throwing batting practice to a group of prospects. Shuttling between fields to ensure the schedule sticking from his back pocket is unfolding as planned.
Jason Bell is the Astros’ new quality assurance coach. He is their lone coach in his first year on a major-league staff yet familiar on these fields. This is Bell’s eighth year in the Astros’ organization. A resolute route carried him to unheralded roles in its sustained run of success and the one he holds now.
“He earned his opportunity to be here,” first-year manager Joe Espada said this offseason.
Bell, 33, joins Espada’s staff as the coaching equivalent of a utilityman. His in-season duties will include assisting with hands-on coaching, game planning and scheduling. He also offers what Espada termed a “bridge” to Houston’s player development operations.
Bell spent the past five seasons as the Astros’ minor-league field coordinator and is helping new bench coach Omar López run spring training this year, orchestrating the daily work of more than 60 players in major-league camp. Some of them Bell helped mold in their ascent through Houston’s system.
Shortstop Jeremy Peña is one. Drafted in 2018, Peña started his career in short-season A-ball. Bell was his first manager at TriCity. Bell did not play professionally and was a first-time manager at age 27 but, Peña said, he got through to players. Later as a field coordinator, Bell worked often on defense with Peña, who won a Gold Glove as an Astros rookie in 2022.
“I feel like he’s been with me every step of the way,” Peña said. “With him, it’s mostly you feel that he cares. You feel that he cares about the players. It’s about improvement, getting better. But at the same time, it’s like let’s enjoy the game. At the end of the day, you’re human. And I feel like he always brings out the best in me. He always gives me the confidence to just go out and play.”
In 2017, Bell served as development coach at Class-A Quad Cities. Chas McCormick, a 21stround draft pick by Houston that year, joined the affiliate in July. For the now-Astros outfielder, the major leagues seemed still far off. McCormick recalls a day that he was “kind of dragging a little bit” before the game and “kind of not into it” in pregame work.
“And I just remember (Bell) kind of coming up to me like, ‘Hey man, if you don’t want to be here, go home,’ ” McCormick said. “‘You have a chance to play pro ball and you look like you don’t want to be here, and if you don’t feel like doing these things we asked you to do, go home.’
“And I just thought that was a good reality check. I thought that woke me up a little bit and I’m happy he did that … Ever since, I was kind of like, all right, you’re blessed to be here, you have a great opportunity, enjoy it.”
Bell pitched in college at Saint Louis University and the University of Central Missouri. Tommy John surgery after his junior year doused dreams of a playing career and spurred his pivot to coaching. First, though, Bell earned a master’s degree in kinesiology in 2014 — writing his thesis paper on the Astros.
While pursuing the degree, Bell did an internship with Baseball Info Solutions, now Sports Info Solutions. He watched game film and charted strategies. Defensive shifts were on the rise. The Astros lost 111 games in 2013, but Bell noted they were effective at positioning fielders to prevent runs and had talent in their farm system. His paper predicted the Astros would win a World Series in the next few years.
“They were doing things better than other teams,” Bell said. “So I started to look at how they develop players and the way they think about things and some of the staff they had hired. It just seemed to me that they were looking at things from a different lens, or maybe like a more magnified lens, where they were really intentional about every aspect of the organization.”
The Astros posted an online ad for a minor-league development coach for the 2016 season. Bell, who had had worked as the director of baseball operations for Ohio University and coaching stops at Maryland-Eastern Shore and other schools, applied and included his thesis paper. He also wrote letters to then-Astros executives Mike Elias, Pete Putila and Sig Mejdal. He didn’t get that job but was hired the following year for the Quad Cities role. Bell said that he interviewed with all three executives, who didn’t mention his paper.
“It could have just been the online application,” Bell said. “But I would doubt that, to be honest.”
Bell’s prediction came true in his first year in the Astros system. His focus by then was developing a next wave of players. The Quad Cities roster in 2017 included Yordan Alvarez, Cristian Javier and McCormick. Bell described his development coach role there as being an “information translator” for players. Peña, Bryan Abreu, Luis Garcia and J.P. France played under Bell in 2018 at short-season Tri-City.
That he lacked a playing career did not prove an impediment. Bell said he realized in college he aspired to coach. Once unsure if doing that in pro ball would be an option, Bell is now an example of arriving by a different route.
Bell will be in the dugout during games this season, Espada said. He expects to “have a lot of different hats,” helping in the batting cages, with position coaches and with “anything strategy related” such as preparing pinch hitters. Once unsure if not playing professionally precluded him from coaching at that level, Bell is now an example of arriving by a different route.
“It’s always been a dream of mine,” Bell said. “It’s exciting to be here, especially in this organization that I feel like I grew up in myself. … You’re all of a sudden approaching your mid-30s and you’re like, wow, look how I’ve grown and developed as a coach and a person. And you do the same thing with players you get as teenagers who are now adults. I think sharing those moments, there’s no place I’d rather be.”