Former Guardians bust is frustratingly revitalizing his career with Twins  

In 2023, the Cleveland Guardians signed Josh Bell in free agency in the hopes that he’d be the slugger they needed to reach a new level in the American League. 

Instead, his time with Cleveland lasted 97 frustrating games before he was traded to the Marlins at the deadline in a deal that nearly destroyed the Guardians’ clubhouse but netted Cleveland Kahlil Watson. 

At the time, it looked like those struggles were going to mark the beginning of the end for Bell’s big league career. But he’s quietly bounced back over the past couple seasons, and is in the midst of a productive season for a Twins team that’s hanging around in the American League Central. 

The Guardians are going to get a first-hand look at that production later today when they open a three-game series against Minnesota at Target Field. 

Josh Bell has been productive for the Twins

Bell enters today with a .247/.306/.431 slashline with 13 home runs and 60 RBI in 88 games. His RBI total is tied for the third-best mark in the American League behind Nick Kurtz and Yordan Alvarez. 

He’s pretty much guaranteed that he’s going to eclipse his production from last season (22 HR, 63 RBI in 140 games), though it’s come at the expense of his on-base percentage (.306 this year compared to .325 last season). 

Bell’s been a notably streaky hitter throughout his career, and this year is no exception, as he posted an OPS of .666 in April and .562 in May before having an .891 OPS in June. He’s already slugged three home runs in July.

That streakiness should look familiar to Guardians fans considering he hit just .233 in his time with the Guardians in 2023 but hit .270 after he was traded to the Marlins. 

While the Guardians’ trade of Bell looks even better now that Watson has impressed in his first taste of big league action, he’s still a reminder of just how disastrous Cleveland’s 2023 season was. 

But even though Bell’s been able to drive runners in, his limitations are still evident. Not only is he not getting on base as much as he has in years prior, he’s mostly been a designated hitter this season, but has been worth -1 Outs Above Average in his brief time in the field. That's one of the biggest reasons why he’s been worth just 0.4 fWAR (Alvarez has been worth 4.1 fWAR and Kurtz has been worth 3.3 fWAR, for comparison). 

Although those limitations put a clear limit on his ceiling, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him dealt at the trade deadline as the Twins look to straddle the line between buying and selling. (ESPN’s Jeff Passan just ranked Bell at No. 40 on his list of the top 100 trade candidates). 

Two months ago, the Twins took two out of three from the Guardians at Progressive Field despite Bell going 3-for-13 in the series with nine strikeouts. They’re going to need to keep Bell in check again this week if they want to leave Minnesota with a series win. 

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