According to La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune (via ESPN’s SportsCenter), the Minnesota Twins have had a couple of scouts watching San Diego Padres’ closer Heath Bell. This is a follow-up to last week’s report from  Bob Nightengale of USA Today who said the Twins were “extensively scouting” the reliever. Bell is apparently on the Twins’ short list of candidates to replace the injured Joe Nathan who is out for the year due to Tommy John surgery.

Neal says that the Twins will first search from within the organization with Jon Rauch (career 356 appearances, 3.79 ERA, 26 saves with 17 of them with the 2008 Nationals) and Matt Guerrier (career 319 appearances, 3.41 ERA, 4 saves). If those don’t work out, Francisco Liriano (27 relief appearances, 4.16 ERA with 1 career save) may assume the closer role. The team will experiment with the pitchers in the first few weeks of the season because Spring Training won’t give any of them the simulation of closing in a regular season game.

Bell, 32, was 6-4 with a 2.71 ERA with 42 saves with the Padres in 2009. You can see Bell’s contract history and statistics here.