Minneapolis – For the first time in three years, the Minnesota Twins signed a free agent to a major-league deal before the holiday season. Monday morning, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the Twins had inked switch-hitting first baseman and designated hitter Josh Bell to a one-year, $7 million deal with a $1.25 million buyout option for 2027.
Bell, 33, was an All-Star in 2019 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and National League Silver Slugger winner at DH in 2022. He spent all of last season with the Washington Nationals, putting up a .237/.325/.417 slash line with 22 home runs, 63 RBI, and a 110 OPS+ over 140 games.
2026 will mark the fourth consecutive season the Twins have signed their potential Opening Day first baseman since they released Miguel Sanó and traded Luis Arraez to the Marlins for Pablo López in the 2022-23 off-season. Their previous three first basemen were Ty France (2025), Carlos Santana (2024), and Donovan Solano (2023).
The Twins have had slightly above-average results overall from their previous three first basemen signed through free agency. Each of France (0.8 bWAR), Santana (2.5), and Solano (1.6) had produced a positive bWAR in their short time with the Twins, and most notably, France and Santana won the American League Gold Glove at first base during the past two seasons.
Bell had a 0.4 bWAR with the Nationals in 2025 and hasn’t had a season with a bWAR over 1.0 since 2022, mostly due to his lack of defensive upside. Bell has never had a season with a positive defensive WAR, with his best dWAR coming in the COVID-shortened 2020 season at minus-0.4. Last year, he had a minus-1.5 defensive WAR, despite playing just 33 games at first base.
The addition of Bell to Minnesota’s 2026 roster will more than likely see him spending more time at DH than any other player. However, it does not mean he will not have any playing time at first. Twins third base and infield coach Ramon Borrego put a lot of work in with France to improve his defensive game at first after a poor 2024 season in the field, and it ended up winning him a Gold Glove.
Bell’s defensive track record doesn’t indicate he will win the Twins a third straight Gold Glove at first base. Still, knowing how Borrego has worked with other players on their defensive skills is a good indicator that Bell could see his defensive game improve at first in 2026.
But the Twins did not just bring Bell in to be another name at first base. What he lacks in defensive skills, he more than makes up for in bat-to-ball skills, especially in a first base/ designated hitter role. Bell had the fifth-highest walk rate among first basemen with 500 or more plate appearances, sitting at 10.7% and the seventh-lowest strikeout rate, sitting at 16.5%.
On top of having the seventh-lowest strikeout rate, Bell had the fifth-fewest strikeouts among qualified first basemen, with only 88 in 533 plate appearances in 2025. For a Twins lineup that was 17th in the league with a 22.6% strikeout rate and 19th with an 8.2% walk rate, Bell’s addition should improve the Twins' overall numbers in those two categories and minimize some of their feast-or-famine approaches at the plate.
It’s important to note that Bell has had a track record of being a feast or famine hitter over the years. His splits between the first and second halves of the 2025 season are a good example of that. He had a slow start to the season last year. In 84 games before the All-Star break, Bell had a .219/.307/.372 slash line with 11 home runs, 36 RBI, 35 walks, and 57 strikeouts.
Bell was hitting like an all-star once again in July with a .338/.443/.486 slash line over 88 plate appearances. He kept those numbers up with a solid second half, hitting .272/.357/.500 with 11 home runs, 27 RBI, 23 walks, and just 31 strikeouts.
The decrease in strikeouts and increase in all other categories are thanks to a swing change he made in season from the left side of the plate. As a result of the adjustments, Bell’s bat speed increased from 73 MPH to 74.2 MPH, and he reduced the number of strikeouts.
By signing Bell, the Twins are banking on the improved version of him from the second half to help bolster the middle part of the lineup. Bell also has a strong bill of health, having played in no fewer than 140 games each season since his first full season in the Majors in 2017 (excluding 2020).
Add that with his switch-hitting abilities, and Twins fans can expect to see him in the lineup almost every day this next year, with Kody Clemens splitting time behind him whenever Derek Shelton wants to go with a lefty-heavy lineup against opposing right-handed starters.
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