Should the Twins Bring Back Josh Bell for 2027?

[Ray Stuedemann]

Image courtesy of Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Josh Bell has provided the Minnesota Twins with a steady presence in the middle of their lineup throughout the 2026 season, but with the offseason approaching, the organization will have to decide whether he's done enough to earn another year in Minnesota. He's been a solid hitter, slashing .254/.316/.419 with 20 home runs in 605 plate appearances, primarily from the designated hitter spot. He struggled early in the season with a 73 wRC+ through the end of May. Since June 1, though, Bell has a 125 wRC+, with 15 of his 20 homers and a sturdy .281/.345/.471 line. He's famous for being good for just half of each season, but this is a 381-plate appearance stretch over which he's been very good. Replacing that kind of production wouldn't be easy.

However, Bell's value is tied entirely to his offense. He barely played first base this season, only appearing in 141 innings at the position while it has been held down primarily by Royce Lewis, Kody Clemens, and Victor Caratini. As a designated hitter, his full-season line is pretty much average, relative to the league's performance at that spot (.241/.325/.414), so to believe he actively makes you better, he would have to be the good version of himself from the last few months.

More importantly, retaining a full-time DH may limit the Twins’ flexibility in an unwelcome way. Byron Buxton will be coming off hip surgery, which may mean he needs time to ramp up to full-time center field duties—or that he never returns to them. The outfield is crowded even without Buxton, with Emannuel Rodríguez, Walker Jenkins, and Luke Keaschall projected to start there in 2027. Keaschall has struggled defensively at every spot the sport has invented. Some time at designated hitter for Keaschall may be best next year to get the most out of him. Between Keaschall, Buxton, Hendry Mendez, Gabriel González and Aaron Sabato, at the moment, the team has no shortage of bat-first or bat-only players. Bell would have to be shoehorned in, at the expense of someone else.

The other aspect Bell brings is a veteran presence. While it may seem like that doesn’t matter much, Derek Shelton has raved about Bell, specifically citing the stability he brings to the clubhouse. With what should be a younger Twins team next year, that may be what Minnesota requires, with the uncertainty around Buxton’s start date and Ryan Jeffers headed elsewhere via free agency. Bell’s experience could be extremely valuable to younger players such as Rodríguez, Jenkins, and Kaelen Culpepper.

Bell’s contract has a $10-million mutual option for 2027, with a $1.25-million buyout attached. Virtually all mutual options are declined by one side; this one is more likely to turned down by the team. The 2027 version of the Minnesota Twins should be focused on playing their young players as much as possible. Bell may be a better bat then most of the Twins’ younger talent right now, but if they're going to spend what it requires to keep him, they should do so on a player who more ineluctably (and more flexibly) upgrades the lineup.

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[MapleGroveTwinsFan]

hard no

[PuckettPond]

No, as a small market rebuilding team should put their resources elsewhere & use a rotating DH. DHs are for contenders not pretenders. 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

It's not ridiculous.  He was certainly productive, he seems like a good guy. and I would rather have him than Larnach.  $10M seems like a pretty steep price though for a team with a small payroll.  

That being said, I think that the team is better served to have the DH spot open for a rotation of players (like Buxton) and the additional flexibility on the bench that having a full-time DH prevents.  I just hope we have enough good hitters to make that true. 

Thank him for his excellent service and wish him well on his next stop.  

[gman]

I think they will need to plan on up to 100 games at DH for Buxton next year. That's if he gets out spring training and is healthy enough to play. So the question then becomes how much would they pay for some one else to DH for the other 60 games. 

[DJL44]

If he agrees to turn his buyout into a 1 year $1.25M contract, I’m in. Otherwise, no thanks.

[Rosterman]

Nope. The Twins could still keep Wallner or Larnach, find space for Sabato, and still have Gonzalez and Mendez taking up 40-man roster space looking for a chance. Buxton may be pushed out of the outfield, so he would DH more, too.

[Brandon]

If they keep Lewis then no.  If they don't keep Lewis for next season I am fine bringing him back.  I do not expect him to be as good.  But this is an 8.75 million decision for the Twins.  And I doubt Bell would opt out.  I think he likes it here and will not likely do much better on the open market. Unless he thinks he can get a 2 year guarantee.  I put the odds of a return at just over 50%.

[MeleMouth]

Bring Bell back as bench coach.

As a player, he won't help them win next year, there's no chance he would be part of a better future team, and he would be unlikely to get anything of value at the trade deadline.

Unless you need a certain number of replacement level players to get through a push year, the optimal number of at-bats for a player like that is zero.

[nicksaviking]

He was a better hitter than I expected, and honestly, despite not liking the signing last offseason, he did endear himself to me; a great guy for sure. But he's still not a good fit for the roster. 

I just don't understand why this club always has to find their 'veteran clubhouse' presence on the lower tiers of free agency. Why don't the team's existing veterans fill this void? Why can't 25M free agents fill this void?

[howeda7]

I would rather not bring him back, especially for $10 million. However, the free agent market is pretty bad, so I fear they will. And Shelty will play him entirely too much.

[Riverbrian]

He did a nice job for us. 

But... No we shouldn't. 

While he did a nice job for us. DH only that only did a nice job for us is not good use of the DH position. 

Unless you have a king kong type DH you shouldn't have a full time DH. 

[thelanges5]

Sorry but no. I liked the Bell signing at the time and still do. They’ll need that DH spot to cycle Buck and the OF through. 
Keaschall, Emma, Jenkins, and maybe Roden. 

[SF Twins Fan]

Bell was better than expected but doesn’t fit the team next season. The Twins need to put that money towards bringing Jeffers back on a multi year contract and going out and getting a legit 1b. 
 

Ideally Jeffers signs a 3 year for $17-$18 per. 
Find a legit middle of the order bat that can play 1b.

[jmlease1]

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: While Bell was ok this season and certainly had some big moments, he didn't hit well enough to make him worth investing the salary nor the roster spot in overall. The signing wasn't a disaster, but it also wasn't anywhere near a clear win. It was...ok-ish. Bell basically can't play the field any longer, so in order to be worth the money and the roster spot (and both have significant value) Bell has to hit better than this. You need him to hit more like he did in 2021 or 2022. Well, 4 seasons have passed since 2022 and this is basically the hitter he is now, and that's not worth paying real money for if you're the Twins. There's little chance he'll be significantly better at 34 than he has been for the rest of his 30's. He was good from June on, but April & May count too. We can't really afford to out-wait the Josh Bell slow start.

No to bringing back Bell. We need the budget to invest in a higher ceiling, and we probably need to the roster spot to rotate through Buxton, Keaschall, and the young OF who need ABs.

I'm not sure if there's anyone who will be available, but I'd rather take money saved from not paying Bell & Lewis (and digging some cash out of the Pohlad purse) and signing a 1B with a higher ceiling, preferably RH, while planning an OF of Buxton, Keaschall, Jenkins, and Rodriguez and whomever needs a day off in at DH. Hard to make that work with Bell, and he's not really worth the money.

[Andy MacPhail]

No, let's stop this FA 1B/DH merry-go-round & plug Keaschal in

[weitz41]

I wouldn't mind having him on the team next season, but I looks like an awful crowded (position player side) roster atm and the DH spot is going to be needed for Keaschall, Buxton and likely another outfielder.

[Twins GFP]

I say kick him to the curb.

We booted Ty France, his 4.8 WAR this season would not help us
We booted Carlos Santana, never mind his 1.4 WAR the following season
We booted Donovan Solano, his 1.0 WAR the following season was passable

I am sure we will find another reclamation project that will sign, boot, and let them be successful for at least another season on another team.
 

[Patzky]

Inelectutbluly? Inecutibly? Yeah I'd like him back for under $5 million. But I'm more delighted to learn a new word.

[wavedog]

He did a good job as DH and appears to be a well-liked teammate but let's go out on a positive note and not bring him back.    For $10M and no defensive value pretty easy choice.   We can use the DH for Keaschall/rotating rest  and get Jenkins/Rodriguez in the field to improve our defense.    In hindsight we should have brought Ty France back who has had a great offensive and defensive season this year I believe at a cheaper price and we knew him from last season.

[jmlease1]

28 minutes ago, Twins GFP said:

I say kick him to the curb.

We booted Ty France, his 4.8 WAR this season would not help us
We booted Carlos Santana, never mind his 1.4 WAR the following season
We booted Donovan Solano, his 1.0 WAR the following season was passable

I am sure we will find another reclamation project that will sign, boot, and let them be successful for at least another season on another team.
 

Hindsight is 20/20.

• How many people at the time were actually clamoring for Ty France to return? How many people were predicting that Ty France was going to have a career year at 31 and hit better than he ever has in his entire career?
• Santana's poor offense in 2025 would not have been well-received; we got the last good Santana season and made the correct decision not to double his salary in 2025.
• Solano's mediocrity was replaced more than effectively by Santana, so clearly we made the right decision there too.

You can argue, purely based on utterly unexpected results, that the Twins missed on not bringing France back for another run, after trading him at the deadline. But if you can say you saw that coming, you're smarter than basically everyone in baseball because France was still job hunting on Feb 15th; if anyone blew it it was Toronto for not running it back and clearly neither they nor anyone else saw this season coming.

Good for Ty France: he's earned himself a surprising pay day...do you want to pay it and hope this isn't a fluke season? Polanco got 2 years and $40M to play 1B for the Mets and that deal has been a disaster so far. You wanna give France 3 for $55M? If enough people think this season wasn't a fluke, it'll be 3 for $75M.

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

He was a better hitter than I expected, and honestly, despite not liking the signing last offseason, he did endear himself to me; a great guy for sure. But he's still not a good fit for the roster. 

I just don't understand why this club always has to find their 'veteran clubhouse' presence on the lower tiers of free agency. Why don't the team's existing veterans fill this void? Why can't 25M free agents fill this void?

Agree.

This team isn't Josh Bell from being a contender. Move on already. Their inability to trust their farm and to admit where they are is truly astounding. 

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

It's not ridiculous.  He was certainly productive, he seems like a good guy. and I would rather have him than Larnach.  $10M seems like a pretty steep price though for a team with a small payroll.  

That being said, I think that the team is better served to have the DH spot open for a rotation of players (like Buxton) and the additional flexibility on the bench that having a full-time DH prevents.  I just hope we have enough good hitters to make that true. 

Thank him for his excellent service and wish him well on his next stop.  

Productive? He got RBIs when games were already decided so I guess there's that. Otherwise, he was a league average hitting position player signed to play 1B, but he was unsurprisingly so poor at covering the position he was moved to DH.

A lot of fans argue the RBI. Okay. Then we're on the WPA train (Win Probability Added) which determines, over the course of the year, how much of the time Bell's production added directly to a win or detracted from it. -0.70 on the year. An average hitter would have netted the Twins 1 more "W" in the column vs. Bell.

Otherwise, you can argue the overall stat line which ended in a little above league average wRC+ 108.

[LA Vikes Fan]

3 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

It's not ridiculous.  He was certainly productive, he seems like a good guy. and I would rather have him than Larnach.  $10M seems like a pretty steep price though for a team with a small payroll.  

That being said, I think that the team is better served to have the DH spot open for a rotation of players (like Buxton) and the additional flexibility on the bench that having a full-time DH prevents.  I just hope we have enough good hitters to make that true. 

Thank him for his excellent service and wish him well on his next stop.  

This. Bell gave us almost exactly what we expected when we signed him. No shame on him. Still, we don't need a DH next year. We have 4, maybe 5, OFs who need to play almost every day (I'm counting Roden since he has the best stats of the 3 young guys). Sabato is now up and who knows, he may show enough to get a shot next year. GG and Mendez, and even Rosario, may need a look in 2027. Let's leave to DH spot open to rotate guys through as we settle on a new core.  

[Twins GFP]

41 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

Hindsight is 20/20.

• How many people at the time were actually clamoring for Ty France to return? How many people were predicting that Ty France was going to have a career year at 31 and hit better than he ever has in his entire career?
• Santana's poor offense in 2025 would not have been well-received; we got the last good Santana season and made the correct decision not to double his salary in 2025.
• Solano's mediocrity was replaced more than effectively by Santana, so clearly we made the right decision there too.

You can argue, purely based on utterly unexpected results, that the Twins missed on not bringing France back for another run, after trading him at the deadline. But if you can say you saw that coming, you're smarter than basically everyone in baseball because France was still job hunting on Feb 15th; if anyone blew it it was Toronto for not running it back and clearly neither they nor anyone else saw this season coming.

Good for Ty France: he's earned himself a surprising pay day...do you want to pay it and hope this isn't a fluke season? Polanco got 2 years and $40M to play 1B for the Mets and that deal has been a disaster so far. You wanna give France 3 for $55M? If enough people think this season wasn't a fluke, it'll be 3 for $75M.

Now I feel bad that you crafted this response to a post that was mostly sarcastic...

I did think they should have kept France, but nobody expected this type of season from him.

The Twins do seem to have a knack for finding guys that are serviceable or better at 1B for very little money. I don't think they have a solid long-term answer at 1B in the entire system, so it would not surprise me to see them take another flyer next year. I do not think the answer is Bell next year and would be ok with him leaving

[JBK]

Hire him as hitting coach

[Rod Carews Birthday]

18 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Productive? He got RBIs when games were already decided so I guess there's that. Otherwise, he was a league average hitting position player signed to play 1B, but he was unsurprisingly so poor at covering the position he was moved to DH.

A lot of fans argue the RBI. Okay. Then we're on the WPA train (Win Probability Added) which determines, over the course of the year, how much of the time Bell's production added directly to a win or detracted from it. -0.70 on the year. An average hitter would have netted the Twins 1 more "W" in the column vs. Bell.

Otherwise, you can argue the overall stat line which ended in a little above league average wRC+ 108.

OK.  So you clearly think it IS ridiculous to bring him back based on performance.  That's fair.  I do choose to argue the overall stat line, and I know that there are MUCH worse ways to spend money than on Josh Bell.  I'm not actually advocating for his return because he no longer fits the roster, but I don't think that money was thrown out the window.  YMMV

[nicksaviking]

35 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Agree.

This team isn't Josh Bell from being a contender. Move on already. Their inability to trust their farm and to admit where they are is truly astounding. 

Right. When the team feels so strongly that they the need a free agent to provide veteran clubhouse presence, but won't pay for that presence to be a player who'd also bat in the middle of the order on a contending team, than you're shopping for a baby sitter and not a baseball player.

[Linus]

No way they should bring him back. He’s a league average hitter and can’t field a position. You don’t get to be a full time dh with a WRC+ of 108.