Switch-hitting slugger Josh Bell has exercised his player option for the 2024 season, as noted by Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. In doing so, Bell has opted to remain with the Marlins, where he figures to be the club’s primary first baseman in 2024, rather than return to the open market this offseason. The Marlins have since announced the news.
Bell’s opt-out was among the more borderline cases this option season, particularly among positional players. Bell, 31, struggled a bit in the first half of the season with the Guardians, slashing just .233/.318/.383 with a below-average wRC+ of just 96 in 393 trips to the plate with Cleveland this season. Bell was then dealt to Miami at the trade deadline, however, and quickly caught fire with the Marlins. In 224 trips to the plate throughout the remainder of the season, Bell slashed .270/.338/.480 (119 wRC+) while doubling his season home run total, from 11 to 22.
While his run in Miami did little to salvage his overall season numbers, leaving him with a 105 wRC+ that was 17th among 24 qualified first basemen this year, the hot 53-game stretch was essentially in line with what Bell had produced in both 2021 and 2022 with the Nationals and Padres. In a relatively weak free-agent class for hitters, that made it at least conceivable that Bell would decline the option and test the open market, where he’d be one of the better first base/DH bats available alongside Brandon Belt. That said, Bell’s final decision wasn’t much of a surprise; a poll of MLBTR readers just before the postseason began indicated that a whopping 72% of respondents believed Bell was better off exercising his 2023 option in pursuit of a stronger platform year in 2024.
For the Marlins, the return of Bell is surely a relief to the club that parted with 2021 first-round pick Kahlil Watson in order to acquire him from the Guardians at the deadline this year. Bell and fellow deadline addition Jake Burger both helped to spark the club’s offense down the stretch in 2023, and with the club’s primary DH in Jorge Soler headed for free agency the duo figures to help anchor the lineup alongside second baseman Luis Arraez.
Of course, more will be needed to help the club reach the postseason for a second consecutive season. The club’s offense ranked 20th in the majors last year with a 94 wRC+, and the loss of Soler’s 126 wRC+ bat will further limit the club’s offensive potential without external additions. While the return of Bell on a one-year, $16.5MM pact leaves the club with less payroll space to facilitate those additions, they still have $20MM in budget space available even if they plan on just matching their 2023 payroll of $110MM, per RosterResource.
Yea!
Love him!
He has a very good personality makeup. Hope he builds upon his recent production with us and has a strong 2024
Loved him in DC. Very professional and led a literacy program for kids. His swing is among the more awkward I’ve ever seen though.
Let’s see…
0.4 WAR for $16m
Good opt-in, Josh!
Your absolutely right. Look for the first half Josh Bell to magically reappear next season.
Edwin Starr has the best opinion of WAR that he made millions off of a song about it.
I get your clever pun. But really? You think WAR isn’t a real proven thing? Or is it your blind defense of anything Marlins? Even you have know that WAR is a pretty accurate measure of a player and has been for quite awhile.
I think Eric Burden had a pretty good run with War too.
@Chris from NJ
Anytime you build a measurement from formulas that someone created, it is based on someone’s theory. When you get into theories, it is a fallacy to use it as an absolute truth/fact…which is what many advanced stats users do. WAR has always been flawed like every other advanced stat. Your Mets have proven you can build up a team on WAR and still lose. Many institutions that depend on advanced stats have been flawed when they take it as an absolute truth/fact. You can’t do that with items where the foundation is based on theory to create a formula from that theory.
In addition, anyone that uses advanced stats for a business will tell you that alle they do is show you past trends. No matter how far a trend leans, none of them can predict what human element will create next, in particular human element based on evolution (in the case of sports, an athlete making adjustments).
I’m not a huge fan of advanced metrics myself but WAR is more then a theory. It is an almost universally excepted measure of a player’s performance. While it’s true that it’s somewhat flawed it’s the most accurate way to gauge a players performance when looking at his numbers.And that’s what we are talking about Josh Bell’s past performance. And who built the Mets on WAR? Do you really think Eppler said to Cohen let’s go out and sign the guys with the highest WAR’s? No one builds at team like that. You can add the whole spiel about “Institutions that rely on advanced metrics” to devert from the fact that Josh Bell isn’t going to make any “adjustments” and he will not be worth the contract that he opted in on. I’m surprised he did that. I thought for sure that your Marlins would hand him 3/48 with no questions asked. Sounds like a Marlin free agent signing. And you can say all you want about the bad signings the Mets have made. They have the money to make mistakes and pivot. The Marlins rely on revenue sharing from teams like the Mets. So I get it WAR is wrong you are right.
I think that the fact that the best players always have the best WAR is a pretty good indication that it’s not a bad stat to go by. You never see garbage players near the top of the leaderboard
@Jaysfanince92
But you do see garbage players with higher WAR than better ones. Jason Heyward and Juan Lagares say hello.
Jason Heyward was solid this year. His OPS was over .800 and he played his usual great defense. There is a reason a team like the Dodgers gave him asuch playing time as they did, he was playing much better than he had in past seasons.
Not sure what you mean by Lagares. He hasn’t had a good WAR in years.
He doesn’t know what he talking about. He obviously doesn’t count defense. Heyward’s high WAR seasons were years he was a good offensive player combined with his great defense. Juan Lagares was the best centerfielder in the world in 2013-14 when he accumulated and 3 and a 5 WAR season. He’s never wrong. Mention revenue sharing to him and it crickets.
Josh Bell Exercises
ALL LIES!!!
118 OPS+ over the past 3 seasons. Sounds like a fine return for that money to me.
It looks ok but when you inspect those seasons you’ll see 1 big year and 2 decent half seasons. He’s a streaky hitter. Maybe down in Miami he might show what he flashed in Pittsburgh. Who knows? That he’s not betting on himself is a bit concerning to me. I’d be out testing the market if I was coming on the half he had. Guys have gotten bigger and better deal of a lot less track record then Bell has.
Not a Bell fan either. I think he’s a streak hitter who is totally overvalued. One good year 2 half seasons. Why did he opt in? Not betting on yourself? Especially moneywise?? All big question marks
> 118 OPS+ over the past 3 seasons.
> Sounds like a fine return for that
> money to me.
Oh let me pull out my calculator! It has fist-sized digits.
118 OPS+ (omelettes per salad)
4/17 SB in 1002 career games
261 LBS+
31.8 BMI (6’4” 261)
BMI Categories:
Underweight = <18.5
Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
Overweight = 25–29.9
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater
Increase Physical Activity
Moving more can lower your risk factors for heart disease.
Eat a Heart-Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy diet is the key to heart disease prevention.
Athlete and out of shape.
Jobs:
Hit ball far.
Catch ball.
Keep balanced diet.
Know when to stop eating.
Exercise regularly.
Stay shaped.
Become better.
Not difficult.
They will lose 100 games in 2024
Yeah they’ll likely cut costs and make horrible trades.
I’ll save this. Unfortunately, like many people who make comments like this, we know you won’t be around to get called out on this next year. Guys like you always…I mean always disappear when they’re predictions fail.
Marlinsfanbase…no offense but Minus 2020 the marlins have lost 90+ games in 3 out of the previous 4 seasons is predicting 100 losses really stepping out on a limb?
@MarlinsFan It all depends on the off-season but they have a history of selling when they have a solid core they could build around. I’d say they could definitely be great next year but I’ll bet they cut payroll.
I retract this statement after Bendix being hired.
Ahem…@whosehighpitch @Poolhalljunkies
They will make the playoffs next year
bad deal on his part, for what he’d be worth as a FA
Scott Boras’ burner account
Nah. 5 teams in 4 seasons. Time to settle down. He took good advice, I guess from his agent, to stay put.
exactly. if he repeats what he did at the end of last season over a full year , he’ll be worth a massive deal
hitting the market now could get him a longterm deal at a moderate rate
lmao that made my day
I doubt he was getting more than 16 million on a 0.4 WAR performance. He clearly liked where he was at and this gives him an opportunity to try to put that production up over a full year and get a much better contract than he could have gotten this year.
4 teams in two years. At least he locks in the money. Hope he thrives there.
I’m sure that was his motivation to stay. Good point
Not sure the Marlins are happy about this. He is basically a replacement level player who will make $16.5M for a notorious penny pinching team.
They should be thrilled. When they traded for him they knew unless he went 2019 pirates that he would be back in 2024.
Marlins are happy. He fills a need we have.
Hell yeah. I think he will have a good season. He probably loves being there and he can be one of the top guys if he rakes like he is capable.
Super volatile player but he has power and a good eye. Just his contact that really comes and goes.
Good news for the Phillies. Soler opted out. DH position opens for Bell. Marlins sign Hoskins and I play first
@Whose, Hoskins is even worse defensively
“Marlins sign Hoskins and I play first.” Would you be an improvement over the current situation?
You are odd.
Talk about overpaid… and he’s one of the worst fielding 1B in MLB. What the heck were they thinking giving him a player option???
The Guardians did last off-season. The Marlins traded for him @ the trade deadline.
Pretty sure the Ians dumped him knowing he opt in. Why wouldn’t he. Hopefully Miami gets a good season out of him and Khalil becomes a serviceable bat. Both strike out too much and have streaky but dangerous power.
He had an .818 OPS and a 119 OPS+ in 53 games with the Marlins. Hopefully we get Miami Josh Bell instead of Cleveland Josh Bell next season.
Your guess is as good as mine. Bell has had three seasons (2019, 2021 and 2022) with a useful bWAR around three. Otherwise, he’s basically been replacement level. Who knows what 2024 will be like? He’ll be 31 so he’s not getting any younger.
Miami might have been the luckiest team in the league this year, thanks to an incredible record in one-run games. I’m not overly optimistic for more such luck in 2024.
The 1-run record was as simple result of their bullpen not blowing all the games they did the previous two years. For them, since they’ve played so many close games and led into the last couple of innings over the last three years, it comes down to whether the bullpen holds leads or not. If they do, they can be in the same range of record in 1-run games as this year. If they can’t, then their record in 1-run games will be more like 2021 and 2022…with many of their 1-run losses coming in games they could hold leads that were less than 5 runs…which is where the bullpen coughed up leads at will the previous years.
I bet he likes the warmer weather. Hopefully he’ll continue to hit as he did in the last two months of the season, if not better.
Texas guy…I’m thinking yep, he does love warmer weather.
You can ring Josh Belllllll ell ell ring Josh Bell, Josh Bell.
Good one month, bad 3, then good one more month
Well that is Bell in a nutshell, in case you couldn’t tell. His numbers rose, and then they fell.
What a great country when a guy plays mediocre baseball and still gets what, $17 million?
And you’re surprised by this when Bell’s teammate is Avi Garcia? And there’s another guy playing SS for Detroit who makes significantly more.
Totally mediocre ballplayer. Streaky hitter who really doesn’t hit enough for his position. Was surprised he opted in. Thought he could fleece the Marlins for a 3 year deal but I guess he decided he wanted certainty as opposed to the open market again. They gave up alot to get Burger and Bell. I don’t see it working out again for them next year. Alot of regression due in Miami next year.
They need to bring Soler back and find a decent catcher if they want their offense to be even slightly better than mediocre.
And they need a SS.
Not a good look when a player isn’t willing to bet on himself. Bell lacks confidence in his own ability
He might actually be betting on himself by taking the option. Why sign a long-term deal based on a mediocre platform season when you can play somewhere for a full year that you raked and get a much better long-term deal the next year.
Trading for Bell? and giving up Khalil Watson (top 50 prospect pre-2022) to do it?
Jaysus, Ng, what were you thinking!
Watson has really struggled so far in his professional career and apparently has some maturity issues. It also allowed them to dump the remainder of Segura’s terrible contract. Bell at least has some solid upside, Segura is just toast.
Well said. But maybe we shouldn’t use logic and just call @JackStrawb a misogynist like other posters who wouldn’t explain the logical part to him as to why Ng used Watson in that trade.
I have bashed Ng, but this year’s Trade Deadline, she did very well.
She dumped off Segura’s contract and a questionable prospect for a decent 1B.
She got Burger who will be a decent piece for a few years with us, while giving up a solid prospect.
She grabbed up Robertson for two lottery tickets that are already scratched up.
She got Ryan Weathers to replace Eder who was traded…and the best part…she got him by getting rid of the guy that was long overdue to be booted off this team in Garrett Cooper.
Yeah, Ng did well and went out on a high note after so many gaffes along the way.
Watson isn’t a top 50 prospect in the guardians system, let alone all of baseball. He’s part of a long line of busts of former marlins bats taken in the first round. Miami shoulda stopped hitters a decade ago. They got no clue
With Bell and Burger occupying the infield corners, Miami pitchers had better hope not too many batted balls are hit in their direction. Although, watching Burger after his trade to Miami suggested he’s nowhere near as bad defensively as the ChiSox Press painted him out to be.
Miami will rise or fall in 2024 based on how well or how poorly their injured SPs perform. There’s a lot of talent that spent a lot of time on the IL last year.
Yes, though Sandy won’t be back until ‘25.
That’s great for Marlins he will be on fire to build up his resume for free agency
Interesting how some posters are just destined to bash the Marlins no matter what. They bash this thing of Bell opting into next year, but they would have also bashed the Marlins if Bell opted out.
the marlins have lost 90+ games 3 of the last 4 full seasons ..forgive us for being skeptical
Kinda like how you bash everything the Mets do. The Marlins actually won this year. Expect some bashing and then a whole lot of regression from that team. They played over there heads and I don’t see it happening again.
Sounds much like White Sox fans. Sox fans want Jerry Reinsdorf to sell the team, but they want to pick out the new owner.
Bell > soler. MLB free agency is way to skewed to “what did you do last year” marlins caught a yuge break.
Soler has to atleast consider the QO he’s about to receive. 20 mil for 1 season is a great haul for his skill set. If he believes in himself- he can have higher career earnings at end of day by taking the QO
White Sox fans should be prepared to welcome Bell onto the team. Book-it Dano
A clubhouse cancer and overpaid relic of the Kim Ng era. All teams should be clamouring to bring her in to run their operations immediately.
Very happy to hear this!
Good, then Schumacher can move on to a better situation, like home to the Cardinals.