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MLB MLB Offseason Josh Bell hit 22 homers for the Nationals in 2025. Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images After cycling through five first basemen last season and getting a combined . 678 OPS from the position, the Minnesota Twins needed an upgrade. They found one on Monday in free agent Josh Bell, agreeing to sign the well-traveled slugger to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2027, a league source confirmed to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Advertisement Team president Derek Falvey talked openly during last week’s Winter Meetings about searching for more production at first base. But as always with the Twins, cost was a big factor. Bell isn’t on the level of Pete Alonso or even Josh Naylor, but he was one of the best mid-tier options available and that’s where Minnesota shops. Bell, 33, was arguably the best free-agent hitter fit for the Twins. His defense is a weakness, but his power, patience and relatively low strikeout rates have led to above-average production on a consistent basis. He is a good fastball hitter who typically runs a low strikeout rate, a high walk rate and an ability to barrel the baseball. While Bell has always been an above-average hitter, by OPS, last season felt like something of a bounce-back year, as he surged after a slow start to bat . 282/. 364/. 483 (. 846 OPS) over his last 79 games. Bell’s 12 percent barrel rate with the Washington Nationals this past season was his best since 2019, the year Bell was an All-Star, Home Run Derby selection and authored one of the best months in Pittsburgh Pirates history, hitting . 390 with 46 hits, 12 homers and 31 RBIs in May. Bell is historically better as a left-handed hitter, and that split was even more stark last season, when he had an . 804 OPS against right-handed pitching and a . 552 OPS against lefties. Eighteen of his 22 homers came as a left-handed hitter. Nationals Park can be a tough place for power hitters, too. Bell’s OPS was far better on the road (. 840) than at home (. 639) last year. The Pirates drafted Bell in the second round in 2011 and got him out of a verbal commitment to the University of Texas by offering a record signing bonus for a second-round selection ($5 million). They traded him to the Nationals in December 2020, and in August 2022 the Nationals included Bell in the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to San Diego. Bell’s next stops were the Cleveland Guardians, Miami Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks before he returned to Washington last season. Advertisement Baseball Reference provides “similarity scores” for each player that provide comparisons to current and former players with similar results at each age. Through 24 years old, when Bell finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting, his closest comparison was Carlos Delgado. At 25, it was David Ortiz. At 26, Greg Walker. At 27 and 28, Tino Martinez. At 29, Walker again. For the past two years, the player most similar to Bell is Adam Lind, the longtime lefty slugger. That feels about right. Lind had 200 homers and a 112 OPS+. Bell has 193 homers and a 114 OPS+. As far as hitters-for-hire go, you could do far worse. You know what to expect.