If Pirates' Josh Bell skips HR Derby, Neal Huntington wouldn't protest

When Josh Bell was asked Sunday whether he will enter the Home Run Derby, he smiled and said “maybe.”

Neal Huntington wouldn’t have been upset if Bell’s answer was “no.”

The Pittsburgh Pirates slugger, the National League Player of the Month for May, appears to be a lock to receive an invitation to the annual event July 8 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. He has hit six home runs this season that landed between 446 and 474 feet from home plate. He is tied for fourth in the majors with 18 homers.

Huntington, the Pirates general manager, chuckled Sunday when asked on the radio pregame show about Bell’s possible participation.

“If it’s good for the promotion of the game, we’ll be supportive of it,” he said. “At the same time, we wouldn’t be all that upset if Josh were able to just go play in the game and wasn’t chosen for the home run-hitting contest.”

Huntington didn’t elaborate, but some believe participating in a home-run contest can alter a player’s swing.

A 2010 Baseball Research Journal story quoted Alex Rodriguez, who hit 696 home runs in 22 seasons, as saying: “I try to stay away from that. My responsibility is to the New York Yankees. I need my swing to be at its best.”

Rodriguez participated in three Derbys but none in the final 13 years of his career. His last was in 2002, the year he set a career high with 57 homers. He hit 27 before and 30 after the Derby, including two in one game less than a week later.

The New York Mets’ Todd Frazier participated in Derbys from 2014-2016, the three best home run-hitting seasons of his career (29, 35 and 40). Post-Derby, he hit 10, 10 and 15.

Huntington knows Bell’s invitation is inevitable.

“With as loud as his barrel is and how hard and how far he can hit the ball,” he said, “if he’s in that All-Star Game, it would be hard to think he won’t be asked to be a part of that home run-hitting showcase.”

Bell made history in May with 12 home runs in 29 games, tying the club record set by Jason Bay in 2006. Bay is one of five Pirates who have participated in the Derby, along with Bobby Bonilla (1990), Barry Bonds (1992), Andrew McCutchen (2012) and Pedro Alvarez (2013).

Huntington said Bell’s prodigious power would have been difficult to predict when the Pirates drafted him in the second round in 2011. But some Pirates scouts aren’t surprised.

“When you come off a historic month, it’s hard to say that’s what you saw,” Huntington said. “But that’s what our guys saw as his ceiling as a really good hitter with a ton of power, who’s smart, who’s incredibly hard-working and is going to do everything in his power to get the most out of his abilities.

“That’s what our guys saw when we drafted Josh. That’s what we saw when we refused to trade Josh as he was coming through our system.

“It’s really been a great two months. Now, how do we continue to help him refine and grow and evolve as a person and as a hitter and as a player?

“The best days in our minds are yet to come.”

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