Players · B · DH · 2026

Josh Bell

Minnesota Twins American League CentralDH

Age: 34
B/T: S/R
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 261 lb
Number: #56

Born: August 14, 1992 in Irving, TX, United States
MLB debut: July 8, 2016
Drafted: 2011, round 2
High school: Jesuit
Salary, 2026: $5.75M

dbWAR: 15.9
PA: 623
AVG: .254
OBP: .318
SLG: .415
wRC+: 105

Josh Bell is a designated hitter for the Minnesota Twins. So far in 2026 he has hit 20 home runs and knocked in 92 RBIs, notching 143 hits across 623 plate appearances in 152 games. His batting average is .254, 4.3% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .318 clip and slugged .415, for an OPS of .733, 2.0% higher than the league mark of .719 — 7th of 14 on his team, and 167th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 89.8 mph off the bat, hit 42.1% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 8.6% of them and made contact on 77.1% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 105 wRC+ puts his offence 5% above average. That comes to 0.6 dbWAR — +2.6 runs with the bat, +0.6 for the ballpark, -0.5 on the bases, -3.4 on double plays, -12.8 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+105

wOBA.324

ISO.160

BB%8.2%

WAR.6

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to +5.8 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.

BattingBallparkBaserunningDouble playsPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2026	MIN	152	623	143	20	92	2	51	123	.254	.318	.415	.160	.290	8.2%	19.7%	.324	+2.6	105	0.6
2025	WSH	140	533	111	22	63	0	57	88	.237	.325	.417	.179	.247	10.7%	16.5%	.326	+4.9	108	0.7
2024	MIA/AZ	145	603	134	19	71	0	51	120	.249	.319	.405	.156	.286	8.5%	19.9%	.319	+3.3	97	0.6
2023	CLE/MIA	150	617	135	22	74	0	63	134	.247	.325	.419	.172	.287	10.2%	21.7%	.324	+2.2	106	1.2
2022	WSH/SD	155	647	147	17	71	0	81	102	.266	.362	.422	.156	.296	12.5%	15.8%	.346	+18.0	125	2.5
2021	WSH	144	568	130	27	88	0	65	101	.261	.347	.476	.215	.276	11.4%	17.8%	.355	+18.0	128	2.6
2020	PIT	57	223	44	8	22	0	22	59	.226	.305	.364	.138	.273	9.9%	26.5%	.288	-6.5	76	-0.3
2019	PIT	143	613	146	37	116	0	74	118	.277	.367	.569	.292	.288	12.1%	19.2%	.382	+31.0	140	3.9
2018	PIT	148	583	131	12	62	2	77	104	.261	.357	.411	.150	.305	13.2%	17.8%	.340	+10.4	119	1.9
2017	PIT	159	620	140	26	90	2	66	117	.255	.334	.466	.211	.278	10.6%	18.9%	.343	+9.3	114	1.7
2016	PIT	45	152	35	3	19	0	21	19	.273	.368	.406	.133	.294	13.8%	12.5%	.342	+2.5	114	0.5

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Season

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHP	205	191	52	6	12	38	.272	.317	.419	.323	18.5%
vs RHP	418	371	91	14	39	85	.245	.319	.412	.324	20.3%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 442 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 444 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 8.6%
Exit velocity: 89.8
Max exit velo: 113.7
Hard hit: 42.1%
Sweet spot: 35.8%
Launch angle: 13.2°

Barrel rate8.6%

Exit velocity89.8 mph

Hard hit rate42.1%

Contact rate77.1%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Josh Bell hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by

By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
Situation	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
All situations	623	—	—	—	—	—	—	.254	.318	.415	.324
Bases empty	338	308	66	9	9	29	79	.214	.284	.347	.284
Runner on first	122	110	24	3	6	8	18	.218	.289	.327	.281
Runners on	285	254	77	11	83	22	44	.303	.359	.496	.370
RISP	163	144	53	8	77	14	26	.368	.411	.625	.437

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Head to head

Put Josh Bell beside up to three others.

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Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Jose AltuveHOU

wRC+: 95
HR: 16
AVG: .249
WAR: 1.4

Very close

Jared YoungNYM

wRC+: 112
HR: 9
AVG: .266
WAR: 1.2

Very close

Drew GilbertSF

wRC+: 105
HR: 11
AVG: .240
WAR: 1.2

Very close

Carlos CortesATH

wRC+: 92
HR: 10
AVG: .255
WAR: -0.1

Very close

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.