Working offseason pays off
Pirates’ Bell rebounds offensively at plate
Pirates first baseman Josh Bell, a Texas native, spent his entire winter in Newport Beach, California ... and never went to the beach. Snubbed the nightclubs. Skipped the fine dining.
Oh, but he can tell you all about the batting cages, workout facilities, practice fields and health food spots in Southern California.
“I didn’t go there on vacation,” Bell told USA TODAY. “I went there for work.”
He returned to the Pirates from his four-month Southern California excursion as a completely changed player.
A year ago, he was labeled as a oneyear wonder, changing his batting stance more often than his socks. He set a National League rookie record for a switch-hitter with 26 homers in 2017, only to see his power game vanish last year; his homers plummeted to 12 while his RBI totals dropped from 90 to 62. An anonymous scout in Sports Illustrated called him a virtual fraud. He was also informed by the Pirates that unless he showed dramatic improvement, he could be spending the season as a platoon player.
Today, Bell is one of the most feared hitters in the game and a legitimate MVP contender. He enters the Pirates’ homestand Tuesday hitting .333 with 14 home runs and tied for the major league lead with 44 RBI and league-leading 30 extra-base hits. It’s the most homers by a Pirates player in the first 44 games since Willie Stargell in 1973, the most extra-base hits since Paul Waner in 1932, and tied for the third-most RBI in franchise history.
Bell, who hit .442 with five homers on an 11-game trip without a day off, has three multi-homer games in the last two weeks. His 1.101 OPS ranks behind only Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers and Christian Yelich of the Brewers.
“We’ve never seen him like this,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “Really, we haven’t seen anybody like this in a Pittsburgh uniform in quite awhile.”
No one, not Barry Bonds, Roberto Clemente or Stargell has ever had a start like this in Pittsburgh. He might still be 6-4 and 240 pounds of muscle, but looking deep inside his soul, Bell is a changed man.
“I saw him in Newport Beach in the offseason,” starter Joe Musgrove said,
“and you could just see the look in his eyes, that demeanor. He wasn’t going out partying or doing any of that kind of stuff in the offseason. We talked about it, and he knew there were a lot of expectations and a lot of pressure for him to come out and have a big year, and he embraced it. He said, ‘I know what’s expected of me. I had a monster year my rookie year, and I don’t want last year’s season to define me as a person and who I am as a player.’
“To see what he’s done, pretty impressive man.”
The simple narrative would be that Bell wanted to stick it to that anonymous scout.
It would seem to be the natural driving force for Bell’s phenomenal start, but there’s one little problem. He never read the article. Sure, he heard about it later from friends and family, but it actually never bothered him, and certainly never motivated him.
Then again, if you know Bell, it comes as no surprise, with a DNA that has made him perhaps the most popular player among his teammates, who have never seen him distraught or rattled.
“He is just so focused on the present,” starter Chris Archer said, “nothing bothers him. I remember the first time we met was at the All-Star Game in Cincinnati in 2015. I made the All-Star team and he was in Class A playing in the Futures Game. I go up to him one night and
say, ‘Hey, nice to meet you dude. When are you going to get to The Show?’
“He says, ‘I don’t know. I’m just trying to be in the moment. How about you? When are you going to The Show?’
“He had no idea who I was or that I was an All-Star . ... He’s still the same way. Nothing has changed. He’s always looking for ways to improve and not focused on other people’s opinions or outside influences.”
The problem a year ago was Bell perhaps was looking for too many ways to improve. He couldn’t even keep up with his own batting stances and different approaches. One day he was trying to be a power hitter. The next, a contact hitter. He wanted to drive the ball some weeks and simply get on base other days.
“I needed to have a moment with him last year,” Hurdle said. “He was changing, but not committing to anything. It wasn’t like he was chasing a hit, but in essence, it was chasing stances to find a hit or power. I told him, ‘You need to give me two core convictions that you believe in that are going to make you a successful hitter. I’m going to give you some time to think about it.’ ”
Bell spent four days soul searching, talking to coaches, teammates, friends and family. He sat down with David Freese, the Pirates’ veteran clubhouse leader before being traded to the Dodgers. Freese suggested getting away, starting over and having a complete makeover in almost complete privacy.
“He wanted me to listen to my own voice, and start growing,” Bell said. “I was in a place where I wasn’t having success on a nightly basis, and he said, ‘Hey, man, if you want to change some things up, go out to Southern California. You’re going to work your tail off, you’re going to eat clean, and you’re going to grow the way you want.’ ”
Said Freese: “Everybody was telling him what he should do, but he had to identify what was best for him . ... He had so much talent, but he had a bull’seye on his back. Those first few years are trying years; some guys make it. A lot don’t.”
Bell contacted his agent, Scott Boras, told him he was coming to work out at his facility for the winter and sought recommendations for a hitting instructor. He was introduced over the phone to Joe DeMarco, a former Big 12 batting champ, minor league player and coach at Kansas and California-Irvine. They talked for the first time on Oct. 9. They began working together Oct. 10. Except for a 10-day stretch during the Christmas holidays, they never stopped.
“If you could spend every day with this man,” DeMarco said, “you’d see why he’s doing what he’s doing. His work ethic was unreal. He has insane mind-set and preparation. But he was in Defcon 4, just fighting himself instead of letting his body get in better position. It was like having a Harley, but he was on a kickstand. We had to let this Harley run.”
The two broke down video, going back to even his Class AAA days when he was the Pirates’ minor league player of the year. They adjusted his stance, standing taller in the box instead of being so spread out at the plate, giving his bat path more freedom and space, enabling him to dictate the rhythm and pace of his at-bats. Slowly, Bell started to believe in the adjustment himself.
Now, two months into the season, Bell can hardly believe the results. He’s on pace to hit 52 homers and drive in 162 runs, with five of his homers this season traveling at least 450 feet.
“It feels like I’m living a dream,” Bell said. “It’s awesome.”
The Pirates have gone 27 years without winning a division title and 40 years without a World Series, and if anything is ever going to change, they’ll need Bell in the middle of the renaissance.
“This is a bell that’s going to ring loudly,” Boras said, “and it will ring with eloquence.”