Diamondbacks Acquire 3B Josh Bell from Orioles

In the last twenty minutes or so the story has been breaking that the Diamondbacks have acquired minor leaguer Josh Bell from the Orioles. It's not clear yet what the D-backs have given up to get Bell, but one assumes it will less than a Stradivarius violin.

Dan speculated on Twitter that Bell might be insurance, hedging against Ryan Roberts continued struggles. Bell has been a disappointment for the Orioles, however, hitting just .221/.264/.485 in 226 plate appearances over the past two years. He's still fairly young at 25, but it's hard to imagine that Bell is a particularly serious candidate to even be a stopgap third baseman.

Bell was originally part of the Dodgers organization before being traded to the Orioles for George Sherrill in 2009. Bell has put up very good numbers at every level of the minors, but evidently was unable to impress Baltimore. In 3 seasons of AAA, he hit a slash of .257/.320/.448 with 33 home runs.

Baltimore experimented by having him play both first and DH, so it's not clear yet if the Diamondbacks want Bell to go back to third, or to continue on with first. With all of the injury problems currently facing the D-backs, he might just be considered a short-term solution. It's hard to judge the deal until we hear more about what was given up, which might only be future considerations.

Story has been updated throughout.