After spending his first five seasons in Pittsburgh, Josh Bell has played for six teams over the last half-dozen years. He’s been a frequent trade deadline mover since leaving the Pirates. He’ll never rank at the top of any free agent lists, but he’s come through with each new team.

The Twins signed Bell to a one-year, $7MM deal last winter. He was coming off a solid 22-homer season as the primary DH for the Nationals. Bell stepped into a similar role in Minnesota. He slashed .255/.319/.419 across 631 plate appearances. The switch-hitter drove in 96 runs, his highest mark since 2019. He ranked fifth in the American League in RBI.

Bell finished the 2026 campaign with a 106 wRC+. That’s exactly what he posted in 2025. He’s had a wRC+ between 102 and 106 in each of the past four seasons. The highs were certainly higher earlier in his career. Bell hit 37 homers and earned an All-Star nod in 2019. He won a Silver Slugger award at DH in 2022. But the consistency is admirable, especially in a market that hasn’t offered much reliability recently.

Aside from the offensive output, Bell has also been remarkably durable. He’s played 140+ games in every year of his career, excluding his 2016 rookie campaign (when he was promoted in July) and the shortened 2020 season. Bell hasn’t been on the injured list since 2021.

Sure, a slightly above-league-average bat isn’t the goal at first base/DH. Those positions come with more expectations on offense. But the alternatives last offseason ended up much worse. In Bell’s range of the market were guys like Marcell Ozuna, Rhys Hoskins, and Carlos Santana, who also signed one-year MLB deals. Nathaniel Lowe, Andrew McCutchen, and Eloy Jimenez settled for minor league contracts but did see time in the majors. Lowe was an asset for the Reds and is contributing for the Guardians in the postseason. The rest were disasters. Ty France is the lone option from the group who was clearly a standout addition over Bell.

Assuming Bell doesn’t return to the Twins on his $10MM mutual option, he’ll be back on the open market this winter. Ozuna, Hoskins, and Lowe will join him. Other first base/DH options include George Springer, Joc Pederson, Jorge Soler, and Miguel Andujar. Not great.

Whenever Bell signs this offseason, it won’t light up any group chats. It’ll garner little more than a shrug from whichever fanbase lands him. And he’ll just have another solid season as a bankable middle-of-the-order bat.

Photos courtesy of Matt Marton and Ed Szczepanski, Imagn Images