Could Another Change of Scenery Lead to a Playoff Run for Bell?

Ex-Jesuit slugger lands with Diamondbacks after third straight trade-deadline deal

Josh Bell has become accustomed to the business-related realities of moving around in Major League Baseball. He’s also gotten used to the playoffs.

The former Jesuit Dallas standout is seeking his third consecutive postseason appearance in 2024, each time with a different team. The veteran first baseman was traded in late July from the struggling Miami Marlins to the surging Arizona Diamondbacks, who reached the World Series last year before falling to the Texas Rangers.

Such is the path of a journeyman who has become highly regarded as a left-handed slugger with almost 200 career home runs, even if his career lacks the stability he once enjoyed.

“I haven’t really had a place to call home outside of the baseball diamond itself,” Bell told MLB Network Radio. “But that’s all anybody could really ask for, is to be able to play in the big leagues and travel the country, and at the end of the year be playing meaningful baseball.”

Bell spent his first five seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the organization that drafted him out of high school in 2011. He hit a grand slam in his second career at-bat in 2016, became an All-Star in 2019 — when he hit a career-high 37 home runs — and anchored the middle of the lineup before being traded to Washington before the 2021 campaign.

Bell, 31, played 852 regular-season games before getting his first postseason at-bat, thanks to a midseason trade to the San Diego Padres in 2022. He hit two playoff home runs for the Padres, who lost to Philadelphia in the National League Championship Series.

He signed with the Cleveland Guardians in early 2023, then was dealt midseason to Miami, which made the NL Wild Card round. With Miami stumbling this year, Bell became a prime trade candidate again, and is now in Arizona — his fifth franchise in the past four seasons.

The Diamondbacks could provide an opportunity for Bell to team up with another former Jesuit graduate, prized shortstop prospect Jordan Lawlar, who played briefly in the World Series as a rookie.

However, Lawlar has been sidelined with multiple injuries this season while playing for Triple-A Reno. He’s hit well in limited action, but whether he earns another late-season callup to the big leagues remains to be seen.