I'll definitely be curious to see what Bell can do with a bit of lineup protection, but the core of his problems really start with himself. His value has a hard cap if there's no NL DH next year, and he still doesn't really have an identity a a hitter. He constantly tinkers with his approach and the result has seemed to settle into a kind of jekyll and hyde thing where he's either unstoppably locked in or taking the worst swings you can imagine. I don't know if he'll ever find consistency – how he handles the same type of slump in a new situation will be pretty telling in terms of whether he can salvage some solid, mid-range MLB starting talent or flame out even more.
From the Nationals perspective it makes a lot of sense – Yean is several years away and Crowe is depth. From the Pirates, you get the sense that the judgment is simply that he wouldn't gain value. There's clearly an element of not wanting to pay his next salary, but there's a decent baseball argument for at least getting a prospect with some ceiling out of this, as Bell winding up non-tendered/worth nothing is certainly in the range of options. I was initially opposed to the idea of dealing him, thinking that some kind of bridge deal might be the only hope of rebuilding his value, as unlikely as that would be. The Nationals will also have the advantage of Bell needing to play for a contract.
