I don't know the ins and outs of the option rule, but it looks like he has not been back to the minors since his initial call up in 2016. I'll assume that he was added to their 40 man after 2015 (first appeared in the minors in 2012), so one has been burned. There may be a rule that if you are old enough and have enough service time, you could refuse an optional assignment, but if that's not the case, it probably would be time for him to work out his kinks in Rochester. That way, we'd only have one black hole (Schwarber) and one white dwarf (Robles) working out the kinks in the line up.
There is. Five years, which Schwarber has already. So while Schwarber has two options left, he can refuse assignment. Bell can't - he only has 4 years and change - and he also has two options left.
Jake Noll deserves Bell's spot right now. .318 / .348 / .500 at Rochester. Noll did hit .353 in very limited (17 PAs) action last year as well.
Not on the 40 man, though.
