With Josh Bell off to a historic start to his 2019 season, blasting 16 home runs and driving in 47 in the team’s first 48 games while compiling a 337/405/713 slash line, a piece from Rob Biertempfel at The Athletic (subscription required) written at the end of spring training points out that Bell’s transformation started before the end of last year.
After a 2017 rookie season that saw Bell blast 26 home runs, in early September of 2018, 138 games deep into the season, he was struggling along at a 255/344/390 clip, with only eight home runs in 494 plate appearances.