The Nationals have James Wood DHing and Alex Call in the outfield. Bell, a notoriously slow starter, has hit .140/.238/.290 through 105 plate appearances. It’s been enough to pull his career OPS in March/April under .700 to .698. He’s over .800 every other month except for September, when he’s stumbled to .745.

The 32-year-old slugger opened the scoring in the second inning as he ripped an RBI single into center to plate Amed Rosario. That would be his only hit in three trips to the plate. The early results have been pretty brutal for Bell, slashing a woeful .148/.258/.321 with four homers and 12 RBI in his first 93 plate appearances.

That Dave Martinez is rolling out new lineups daily based mostly on who went 2-for-4 and who went 0-for-4 the night before isn’t going to work out great for Bell, who got to hit cleanup the first two games. He hit sixth yesterday and fifth today. There’s probably not going to be much in the way of mixed-league value here, particularly with the Nationals being OBP challenged and not having a lot of runners to drive in.

Bell struggled this spring, hitting .130/.231/.217 with 19 strikeouts in 15 games. He will still regularly hit in the middle of the lineup, at least at the start of the season. The Nationals’ full lineup is: SS CJ Abrams, LF James Wood, 2B Luis Garcia Jr., DH Josh Bell, 1B Nathaniel Lowe, 3B Paul DeJong, C Keibert Ruiz, RF Dylan Crews, and CF Jacob Young.