The San Francisco Giants came into the season with a roster that didn’t have anyone from their three World Series runs a decade ago. Brandon Crawford shocked fans when he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals, a team the Giants faced on their path to glory. Pablo Sandoval, who the Giants signed as a non-roster invite, was released in what could be his final hurrah. Buster Posey, the backstop National League MVP in 2011, joined the Giants ownership group in September 2022. Then, there’s Brandon Belt, who’s back at home in Texas and got no bite from teams.
Brandon Belt Still Doesn’t Have a Job
“It’s kind of baffled me a little bit,” Belt said while appearing on the JD Bunkis Podcast. “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.”
For someone like Belt who posted a .890 OPS against right-handed pitchers last season, it’s a strange time for him. Belt, who will turn 36 on April 20, provided the Toronto Blue Jays a bench bat. He hit 19 home runs with a 136 OPS+ while earning $9.3 million. But, his former teammates don’t have an answer as to why Belt hasn’t signed and according to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, they aren’t happy about it.
“It’s puzzling and upsetting,” said right fielder Mike Yastzemski. “It’s upsetting because 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.”
National League East Team Offered Him a Guaranteed Contract
According to league sources, the New York Mets were the only team to even offer Belt a guaranteed contract. It was mostly an incentive-based offer, which isn’t all that appealing to some. Instead, the Mets went ahead and signed J.D. Martinez to a one-year deal. Martinez will likely serve as the club’s designated hitter when he gets enough work in down at Triple-A. Other teams indicated to Belt that they felt he was a fallback option if other moves didn’t pan out. The Texas Rangers were another team that discussed signing Belt.
However, they never reached the point of making him an offer and it certainly had to do with top prospect Wyatt Langford.
“He’s someone who should have a job.” Austin Slate 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.”
Are Teams Cutting Costs by Going Younger?
When the new CBA came out following the latest lockout, it now encourages teams to promote young stars earlier, along with efforts to sign young stars to long-term contracts. Combine that with a roster with limited spots, someone has to be pushed out. It’s natural consequences all around. A similar thing is occurring in the NHL. Many teams are hesitant to give aging veterans a good deal regarding terms and money. There’s a wave of young players beginning their careers in the NHL who are taking the league by storm. It’s understanding so, especially in a hard cap league. But another significant answer is how pitching staffs have grown to cover innings as starting pitchers who usually don’t a third time through the order.
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