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I felt the most empowered as a baseball player when I was playing with the Nats,” Josh Bell said. “That was one of the main reasons I wanted to come back.”

Josh Bell first came to the Nationals, not by choice, on Christmas Eve 2020. Traded to Washington by the Pirates franchise that drafted him nine years earlier, he quickly embraced the team and the town and openly spoke of his desire to stay here for the long haul.

It’s rare for a player to be traded away and then return to that same team later in his career. It's even rarer still for that to happen and the player becomes teammates with the players he was once traded to acquire.

This story was excerpted from Jessica Camerato’s Nationals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Josh Bell discusses signing a one-year deal with the Nationals, his role as a DH for the team, mentoring young players and more

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