Pittsburgh Pirates: Five trade packages for Josh Bell

As the Pittsburgh Pirates look to be deep in a rebuild, star first baseman Josh Bell nears free agency. Where could the Pirates potentially trade Bell and what could they get in return?

The Pittsburgh Pirates are getting closer and closer to having to make a major decision on their star first baseman. Josh Bell will head into arbitration year number 2 and then after the 2022 season will become a free agent.

That is, of course, if the Pirates do not sign Bell to any type of extension. It has been rumored that the Pirates would like to work on an extension for Bell this offseason but there are a few red flags for those talks. The first of which is Bell’s agent, Scott Boras.

Boras is notorious for getting big money deals and might want to have his client wait until his projected first go at free agency in 2022, rather than sign a team-friendly short contract extension in the range of 3-4 years.

The second hurdle for the extension talks would be figuring out Bell’s value after an abysmal 2020. After a 37 home run, .936 OPS All-Star season in 2019 for the switch-hitting first baseman, Bell had just 8 home runs (on pace for 20 if he played as many games as 2019), and a .669 OPS. Partner that with Bell’s poor defense (-7.0 dWAR for his career) and the Pittsbrugh Pirates will have to really consider if extending Bell is worth it.

So what if they decide to trade instead of extend? There will be a market for him. He’s just 28 years old and still has two more years of team control left, and there are always a few teams looking to add a first base power bat to their lineup.

So who are the 5 teams who should be interested in Bell if the Pittsburgh Pirates were to be interested in trading Josh Bell? And what could the Pirates expect in return?