Josh Bell is aware of the streak and the part he'll play in stopping it. For nine years now, since before any current Pirates were Pirates, the team has trotted out a different starting first baseman each Opening Day. After Adam LaRoche came Jeff Clement, Lyle Overbay, Garrett Jones, Gaby Sanchez, Travis Ishikawa, Pedro Alvarez, John Jaso and then, this April, Bell.
The streak should end March 29, 2018, at Comerica Park in Detroit. The Pirates have their first baseman of the present and the future. Bell isn't budging. A 25-year-old under club control for the next five seasons, Bell, a switch-hitter, backslid at bat this month but has a .250/.329/.457 batting line and 24 home runs to go with 83 RBIs and a .787 OPS.
Bell, a corner outfielder converted to first base in 2014, has appeared in all but two games this season and leads qualified National League rookies in hits (132), doubles (25) and walks (63) and ranks second to the Los Angeles Dodgers' Cody Bellinger in home runs and RBIs. Bell also has acquitted himself well at first base, committing nine errors in 1,134 innings this season.
"It's a good feeling for the organization," manager Clint Hurdle said of finding a first baseman. "I was in a good place in Colorado with a first baseman (Todd Helton) who was in a lock-down position. ... (Bell) has definitely had a solid season, a season which he can build upon."
As the Pirates look toward 2018 and beyond, Bell projects as a big part of their plans. If Andrew McCutchen departs, Bell may emerge as the next face of the franchise. So it's remarkable to recognize just how close Bell came to passing on the Pirates altogether.
That story, boiled down, is about two emails, one Bell sent and another he saved.
The first email came a month before the 2011 draft. As a senior at Jesuit College Prep School in Dallas, Bell batted .548 with 13 homers. He was "baseball's version of a gym rat," his coach, Brian Jones, said this past week. Hype heightened in February when Bell arrived at a tournament in Austin, Texas, and found an MLB Network crew there to film him in the batting cages.
"That turned up the volume a bit," Jones said. "You started to think of what was to come."
Bell was hearing he'd be a first-round selection. He'd long weighed whether to sign or attend University of Texas. The draw of college ball was, ideally, he'd be drafted again three years later and spend less time in the minors. Bell had heard "horror stories," he said, about quality of life in the low minors. "They were true," he added, "but not necessarily as true for bonus babies."
In May, Bell made his decision. He opened his laptop, typed a letter on Microsoft Word and, with his parents' permission, sent it to all 30 Major League teams. The message, briefly, was a request to not draft him because he intended to honor his commitment to Texas. Bell changed his cellphone number, hoping scouts would stop calling. He was relieved, ready to move on.
"In my mind at the time," Bell said, "I was like, 'Oh yeah, (college) is the best choice, for sure.' "
Why tank his own stock? Why not wait for an offer and then decide?
"Because I didn't want that number in the back of my mind if I went to college _ I was a first-rounder and turned down $7 million or whatever _ that would (stink)," Bell said. "To be thinking about working out because I have to get back to that number or this (decision) will be a waste. I didn't want that. It didn't necessarily backfire. I guess the Pirates were just all in."
Bell guessed he'd drop out of the top 10 rounds. At that point, he said, offers wouldn't eclipse $1 million, and between the education and the expectation of being drafted again it would be easier to turn down. And so on June 6, Bell didn't throw a draft party. He was in a summer-school history class at North Lake College when the draft's second round commenced.
Had Bell not sent the first email, he wouldn't have been on the board when the Pirates, who had taken Gerrit Cole first overall, drafted again at No. 61, the first pick of the second round. But Bell was there, and they took him. He found out when he turned on his phone after class.
In the coming days, the Pirates made their initial offer. Bell told ESPN's Buster Olney recently it was $3.5 million. Bell, advised by Calvin Murray of the Boras Corporation, turned it down and enrolled at Texas, starting summer workouts and classes. There was "straightforward" talk with the Pirates on an email string, Bell said. They knew where he stood. The Longhorns knew too.
"I was pretty open about what was going on," Bell said. " 'Oh yeah, I turned down their initial offer. It was a lot.' Guys were like, 'You turned down what? What's wrong with you?' The guys there were part of that decision. I was open about it. I didn't try to lock myself in the closet. I said, 'I made this decision. But the Pirates are making it really tough on me, honestly.' "
A second offer came in early August (Bell declined to disclose the amount). He declined that offer too. That's when he drafted the second email. The crux of the message, he said, was "don't offer again." This is why he'd send the first email, after all. He didn't want to haggle on a price, determining his worth, and then spend three years at Texas trying to match or outdo it.
"I never sent the email," Bell said. "I needed to see if they would offer again."
Four or five days prior to the signing deadline, Bell said, the Pirates upped their offer to $5 million, a record for a player not drafted in the first round (Cole's $8 million bonus and Bell's $5 million prompted the league to adopt a draft system with slot values assigned to picks). Bell went home just before his birthday, Aug. 14, and sought input from family and friends.
"What should I do?" he recalled asking. "They were like, 'Do whatever you want, dude. This is best-case scenario both ways.' Basically, don't complain to me how hard this decision is."
On Aug. 15, Bell signed. He packed his dorm room in Austin, Texas, and headed to Bradenton, Fla. At Pirate City, he met Cole and fifth-rounder Tyler Glasnow. Bell made a strong impression on Glasnow, now one of his closest friends in the Pirates organization. Glasnow recalled, "He came in, shoulders like a fridge, and we were like, wow, this guy looks pretty good."
From time to time, Bell wonders where he'd be now had he stayed at Texas. A torn meniscus in Bell's left knee washed out his 2012 season. "I don't wish that on anybody else, any other draft pick, to get hurt in their first year like that," he said. "It was part of my journey." That injury could potentially have derailed a college career, but the Pirates already had invested in Bell.
Had Bell remained in college, it also is unlikely he would have moved to first base. With the Pirates, Bell said, he had "had two years to really struggle with figuring it out" in the minors. When Bell and his parents reflect on their post-draft decision _ looking back at an educated guess between two routes they hoped reached the majors _ they find their choice sufficed.
"Now," Bell said, "it kind of all makes sense."
