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Jared Walsh vs. Josh Bell
Walsh
Regardless of how you would personally rank them, the top-6 first basemen are set in their own tier. After that, there is plenty of debate about who follows behind them, and who could potentially join that elite group. For my money, that person is Walsh. The 28-year-old from the Angels slashed .275/.338/.502 with 28 homers, 95 RBI, and 69 runs scored last season in what was his first full year in the bigs after first appearing in the shortened 2020 season. The former potential two-way player is now firmly entrenched as the Angels first basemen and that clarity in position and playing time should only help him achieve his massive potential. Locked in the middle of a lineup that will bring back Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, both of whom missed most of last year due to injury, alongside reigning MVP Shohei Ohtani, and hopefully the emergence of former top prospect Jo Adell, Walsh is expected to have have far more lineup protection and runs scoring opportunities this year then he had in 2021. Meanwhile Bell continues to prove that his unbelievable first half of 2019 (.302, 84 RBIs, 30 doubles, 27 HRs in 88 games) was just that, not believable. Sure he has a 20-25 HR/75-90 RBI floor with the potential for more and may be the ‘safer’ of the two options, but the lineup around him, sans Juan Soto, is suspect. Give me Walsh in his second full season to level up in a major way and knock on the door of that top tier of first basemen. - Colin Henderson (@ColDontLie)
Bell
Finally having escaped the Pirates’ lineup, many prognosticators expected Bell to thrive with a move to the Nationals in 2021. He tore the cover off the ball during spring training, but then had a bout of COVID-19 and never seemed to gain his footing early in the season. Through the first month of the season he slashed a cringe-inducing .133/.198/.289 with just three homers, 10 RBI and a 28/6 K/BB ratio. After that though, he went on to hit .287/.375/.513 with 24 homers and 78 RBI over his final 121 games. That’s the player that you should expect heading into 2022 -- and one that should deliver ample RBI totals with on-base machine Juan Soto hitting ahead of him in the Nationals lineup. He has flashed huge power upside before -- with 37 homers in 143 games with the Pirates in 2019 -- and I still don’t believe that we have seen his ceiling in that department. Heading into the 2021 season, I was driving the Walsh bandwagon. I fully believed in his breakout during the truncated 2020 season and thought it would continue full bore in 2021. If you glance at his final line for the season, it certainly looks as though that prediction came to fruition -- slashing .277/.340/.509 with 29 homers and 98 RBI in just 144 games. You’d think that with a full season of Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon hitting ahead of him in the Angels lineup, that the sky would be the limit in 2022 right? There’s concern under the hood though. That terrific 2021 season was extremely front-loaded -- hitting just seven of his 29 home runs after the All-Star break. The bigger concern though, is the massive struggle to hit left-handed pitching. Against southpaws, Walsh flailed to the tune of .170/.208/.357 with a 54/9 K/BB ratio in 192 plate appearances -- and that was with 10 home runs against them. To me, that screams platoon risk -- and Angels skipper Joe Maddon is no stranger to platoons. If given the choice between these two sluggers, I’m much more confident that Bell will be in the lineup on a daily basis. – Dave Shovein (@DaveShovein)
