PITTSBURGH -- Joshua Palacios was claimed off waivers by the Nationals on April 15, 2022. He played 29 games with Washington, going 10-for-47 with zero homers. The Nats decided to move on.

It seems like Palacios has moved on fairly well, too.

With the Pirates, Palacios has gotten regular at-bats, and while there is still some polish the organization would like to see added to his game, the value he provides when he’s at his best is obvious, as it was when he got his revenge in the Bucs’ 5-1 win over the Nationals on Tuesday night at PNC Park.

Remember the zero homers in 2022? Well, Palacios actually had no homers across his first 119 plate appearances until he went deep on June 2 vs. the Cardinals. Now, he’s hit eight in his past 188 plate appearances, including a Statcast-projected 410-foot drive into the bullpen in the second inning at PNC Park.

Even his former manager Dave Martinez can see that Palacios is a changed hitter.

"He's a lot quieter hitting, he's not jumping as much, he's getting good pitches to hit and swinging the bat well,” Martinez said. “He's swinging the bat very aggressively. But I noticed that he's more under control a little bit and staying behind the baseball."

Palacios credits his coaches on the Pirates for a lot of his success, as he feels they’ve been able to unlock the right bat path he needs to get baseball airborne.

“I’ve always hit the ball really hard, but I hit it on the ground,” Palacios said. “So [the coaches] were just helping me get the ball in the air the right way, not lifting the ball. Since I’ve been doing that, I’ve been hitting the ball hard just like I was before, but it’s just been going in the air and now it’s getting out of the park.”

“I think we’ve seen when he gets the barrel of the bat out and gets the ball to pull side in the air, it will go,” manager Derek Shelton said.

The timing of Palacios’ homer was fitting, as moments later, his younger brother, Richie, hit his first of two homers on the night for the Cardinals in their game vs. the Orioles.

Palacios doesn’t qualify to rank among Baseball Savant’s leaderboard for hitting stats, but his 90.7 mph average exit velocity this season -- which would be well above MLB average -- speaks to his ability to punish baseballs.

A stat Palacios is qualified for is arm strength, and he’s in the 88th percentile with an average throw of 91 mph on competitive plays. He did one even better on Tuesday, throwing out former Pirate Ildemaro Vargas from right field to end the seventh inning on a 94.3 mph assist to home.

“Throwing a guy out at the plate, saving a run for my boy right there, that was pretty fun,” Palacios said.

This kind of game is a far cry from the type of games Palacios was playing in to begin the year. He wasn’t in Major League camp with the Pirates, and he started his regular season at Double-A Altoona. He truly had to excel to get to these moments.

“If guys perform, even if they’re not on our roster, then they’re going to have an opportunity to get at-bats,” Shelton said. “He’s done it and deserved them.”

The grind is nothing new to Palacios. He rode a roller coaster of options through his first two seasons. He went unprotected in the Minor League Rule 5 Draft last offseason, and he made it to the second round before the Pirates took him.

The experience has only made him work harder and prove more.

“Those things, you can’t really control what happens with the front office and callups and all that,” Palacios said. “But you control how you play every day, you control your attitude and you can control getting better.”