SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants will line up for their home opener Friday, and for the first time since they hoisted the last of their three World Series trophies a decade ago, their active roster won’t have a representative from the championship era.
Buster Posey is in the ownership seats. Brandon Crawford is a backup shortstop with the St. Louis Cardinals. Pablo Sandoval was released after a last hurrah as a non-roster invitee this spring.
And Brandon Belt is back home in Texas, emptying the lakes one largemouth bass at a time, wondering why a hitter who posted an .890 OPS against right-handed pitchers last season hasn’t gotten more than a nibble from teams.
“It’s kind of baffled me a little bit,” Belt said while appearing on the Toronto-based “JD Bunkis Podcast” earlier this week. “I honestly haven’t had hardly any calls at all that have gone past the point of teams saying, ‘Hey, we’re interested. We’re just checking in.’ I wish I had an answer for you. I just don’t.”
Neither do several of Belt’s former Giants teammates. And they aren’t happy about it.
“It’s puzzling and upsetting,” right fielder Mike Yastrzemski said. “It’s upsetting because I know him and I know how much he still wants to play and how much he still deserves that opportunity because he played so well last year. I can’t imagine there isn’t a single team that could use what he has to offer. It’s a weird time in baseball now, I guess.”
“I would be confused as well,” first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. said. “As far as what it says about the market, I don’t know. I just know he brings a lot to a team. He’s somebody you could always go to with questions. He pretty much had the answer because of all the years he’s played in the league. He’s a great person to be around and a great teammate.”
“He’s someone who should have a job,” outfielder Austin Slater said. “There are others like him who’ve fallen into that boat. And there’s others in the boat of accepting the kinds of deals they didn’t think they’d be accepting. It’s been a weird year and it’s hard to point to a root cause.”
“It just sucks,” infielder Wilmer Flores said. “I don’t know the reason. It’s hard to believe. You want people to acknowledge your work and your play especially if you keep doing good things. It sucks because he is a veteran guy who knows the league very well. He didn’t have one good year. He’s been a good player for a long time, a good teammate. I wish we could sign him. I wish someone would sign him.”
Belt, who turns 36 on April 20, mostly provided what the Toronto Blue Jays envisioned when they gave him a $9.3 million contract before last season. He hit 19 home runs and finished with a 136 OPS+, meaning he was 36 percent more productive than a league-average hitter. Belt also posted a career-worst 34.9 percent strikeout rate and endured brief stints on the injured list because of back and hamstring injuries. But he kept his chronic right knee issues in check while playing in 103 games and finished the year healthier than he did in 2022 when he was limited to just 78 games in his 12th and final season in San Francisco.
“It’s been kind of confusing because last year I was coming off a (2022) season where I was injured the entire season (yet) it was pretty easy to sign,” Belt said on the podcast. “There were quite a few teams calling, quite a few teams wanted me to come play for them, and this year it’s just been basically zero. I don’t know how to explain it. There just hasn’t been a team that’s wanted me. I guess that’s just part of baseball sometimes.”
Belt said he was looking for a guaranteed deal but not necessarily a lavish one.
“I was open to pretty much any team,” he said. “I definitely wanted to go to somebody that had a chance to win something, but that was about it. There was no, like, narrowing the teams down to who I absolutely wanted to play for. I just wanted to play baseball, so we’ll wait to see who comes forward and decide then. But it’s just that nobody’s come forward.”
According to league sources, the New York Mets were the only team to offer Belt a guaranteed contract but it was almost entirely incentive-based. Other teams indicated to Belt that they considered him a fallback if other planned moves didn’t pan out. In the end, despite a universal DH and an expanded postseason, the interest never developed.
That’s troubling to Giants outfielder Michael Conforto, who didn’t overlap with Belt in San Francisco but always admired him from across the field. And because Conforto served as the Mets’ union representative from 2017 to 2021, he is keenly aware that Belt isn’t the only mid-tier hitter languishing without a team. Donovan Solano, 36, who won a Silver Slugger award with the Giants in 2020, is working out in Miami, keeping in touch with Flores, and hoping the phone will ring. Outfielder Tommy Pham doesn’t have a job even though he was a key second-half addition for Arizona last season and might have been considered for World Series MVP if the Diamondbacks had bested the Texas Rangers. Pham, 36, hit .421 with a homer in 19 at-bats in the Fall Classic.
“It’s puzzling for sure,” Conforto said. “(Belt) can definitely help a team win. From the other side, I was never comfortable when he was at the plate. He could hurt you in a number of ways and find a way on base. He’s always a tough out. He’s got power. I don’t see why he’s still out there. It kind of makes you wonder.
“And Pham, he always posts, always plays good defense. There’s also the intangible of being a guy who comes up in big moments. It’s no secret the league wants to go younger. It’s cheaper to move that way. I don’t know if that’s the reason, but it’s definitely shocking that there are guys still out there who can still play and help a team win. I guess the only thing in common with those guys is age.”
“You start to think, ‘I’m not too far off that age.’”
Conforto, 31, was grateful he could opt into an $18 million salary this season, avoid a stalled market for veteran position players and provide structure and certainty in an offseason when he and his wife, Cabernet, welcomed their first child. But he’ll be a free agent after this season. It’s one thing to feel pressure to have a platform season to maximize your value as a free agent. It’s a whole other level of pressure to feel like you’re one mediocre season from being out of the league. And Conforto isn’t alone.
“Solano, Belt … it’s crazy,” Flores said. “Do I have to think this could be my last year?”
Well, not exactly. Flores, who turns 33 in August, holds a $3.5 million player option for next season. He also was the Giants’ best hitter last season. His OPS+ was 136. Same as Belt’s.
Are teams cutting costs by going younger? Do they place a higher value on having players with minor-league options? Yastrzemski isn’t sure. But he doesn’t like the fact respected careers are ending prematurely.
“It’s not great because these are household names who are well liked and have created a fan base for themselves and people want to see them play,” said Yastrzemski, who turns 34 in August and is playing for his own future as he’s gotten more expensive in salary arbitration. “I feel bad for their fans, too.”
If Belt retires to a career of power boats and bass fishing tournaments, it’ll be a subdued and unceremonious way to end one of the most productive careers in franchise history. One of the most entertaining, too.
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