Likely Josh Bell Free Agency Price Tag Revealed

Updated: Sep 10, 5:00pm UTC

After a campaign that saw them reach the NLCS, the San Diego Padres must now focus on the MLB offseason. The Padres have several intriguing players hitting the open market this time around, including switch-hitting first baseman Josh Bell.

As fans wait to find out where Bell will continue the next chapter of his career, ESPN's Kiley McDaniel has an idea of what the veteran's upcoming contract could look like.

Josh Bell Free Agency

McDaniel projects that Bell could make around $20 million on a two-year deal. An average annual value of $10 million seems about right considering that was the exact amount awarded to him by an arbitrator earlier this year when he was still a member of the Washington Nationals.

One reason why McDaniel doesn't see Bell getting more money than that is due to the latter being one-dimensional. While he's a solid switch-hitter with 20-plus home run potential, the MLB insider says that Bell "brings very little in terms of speed or defensive value."

Splitting the year between the Nationals and the Padres, Bell finished his seventh campaign with 17 HRs, 71 RBIs and 81 walks with a .266 batting average over 156 games. His consistent availability is actually one of his best assets, having missed an average of just 12 games over the last five full-length seasons.

With 89 HRs and 298 RBIs in exactly 500 games since 2019, there's no doubt that Bell will likely see his fair share of suitors. Only time will tell if Bell can return to his All-Star form with his next destination.

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.