Giants first baseman Brandon Belt is headed for another MRI on his right knee and is unlikely to return in 2018, manager Bruce Bochy announced to reporters (Twitter link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). It’s likely that Belt will ultimately require surgery to repair the knee.
Belt, 30, becomes the latest notable Giants player to go down with a season-ending injury, joining Johnny Cueto, Buster Posey, Steven Duggar and Jeff Samardzija in that onerous distinction. He’s faded badly at the plate in recent months after a torrid start to the season that saw him mash at a torrid .307/.403/.547 pace through June 1 before landing on the disabled list to undergo an appendectomy. He homered in his second game back from that DL trip but has struggled immensely overall, turning in a miserable .203/.283/.290 slash through 230 plate appearances.
It’s a disappointing finish to what looked to be a potential breakout campaign for Belt just a few months ago. While he’s long been a decidedly above-average (and at times, even great) hitter, the first two months of Belt’s season were elite (156 wRC+ — which is to say that his overall line was 56 percent better than that of a league-average hitter after being adjusted for home park and league).
Belt is in the second season of a five-year extension worth more than $70MM guaranteed, and he’ll earn $16MM in each of the next three seasons. He’s managed just 216 games over the first two seasons of that contract, as he’s been limited by a pair of concussions in addition to his hyper-extended knee and appendectomy.
I thought Belt already had an MRI showing no structural damage?
MVP candidate before getting hurt. He led the NL in OPS for a month.
He has a 107 ops plus…
Hence the “before getting hurt”
Alot of guys can be MVP canidates in May.
Yeah,,,for a month??? He’s no better than Kevin Millar so sorry no break out for him.
Played his last game for the Giants? My sources tell me yes.
No one would consider taking that contract. It was a mistake the day he signed it. Another Ned mistake.
What makes you hate Belt so much? I can’t think of many better first baseman the Giants could have payed besides Belt. Chris Davis? Albert Pujols?
His family went broke when the suspender industry fell upon hard times.
Buster Posey. He should be playing there. His health is/was paramount for SF.
Yes, because his bat plays as well as Mauers does at 1B. Which is to say underwhelming at best.
Why isn’t this in the Giants feed?
Hopefully it’s just a meniscus or a scope or something minimal like that.
Torrid start is torrid
Belt is a good 1B who unfortunately is having injury issues. I would guess the Giants want to trade him but with the contract and injury issues that’s unlikely. Hopefully he can come back next year and be like he was in the beginning of the season.
Change of scenery guys to watch out for with similar contract values.
San Diego trades OF/ 1B Wil Myers to the Giants for OF/1B Brandon Belt. For nothing other than turning a new leaf for each organization, no other teams willing to touch those contracts in any trade proposal, going to have to swap parts and see if they work better in another club house.
You think SF would trade him inside the division? I think he does need a change of scenery.
But…I think SF have babied him too much.
A long while back SF benched him for Brett Pill and at the time SF said that they had been trying to get Belt to make adjustments for 2 years and once benched he made the changes. 2 years??? Why the hell did it take them that long to bench him?
Numerous times I’ve heard beat writers say that Belt is stubborn about making adjustments that coaches suggest.
I would think that a change of scenery would make a huge different for Belt and we’ll all wonder why he didn’t hit like that in SF. But I gotta think for a guy like that hitting in SF would break you down.
If SD wanted to trade for Belt wouldn’t they trade Hosmer instead? SF wouldn’t do that of course. SD would have to trade Hosmer to someone else first, before trading for Belt, and them doing that is doubtful because no one is going to take that contract.
In summation Myers for Belt has about a snowball’s chance.
Teams don’t trade within their division. Are you new to sports?
The Rays and Boston made a trade this season at the trade deadline. The dodgers and padres made a significant trade two years ago. The cubs and reds made a significant trade during the year the cubs won the WS.
Do we know if he’ll be ready to go for spring training in 2019?
This guys is Casey Kotchman with some pop. Why did they spend 70 million on this guy?
Because he’s one of the best defensive 1b in the game and constantly has a 3-5 WAR with a 370+ OBP. Duh.
Belt finished this season just two HR off the team lead, despite his injuries throughout. He led the team in HR each of the two previous seasons, and he is the active team leader in HR over the past 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 seasons.
He’s a solid defender and sometimes carries the team when he gets hot. His contract has provided surplus value every year.
I think trading him with the plan of putting Posey at first base would be a mistake–unless the return was compelling, of course. Posey is an inferior defender at 1B, and he would also lose a great deal of his value which is handling the pitching staff and defense at catcher..
As an aside, BR has Belt slated to earn $17.2M over the next three seasons rather the $16M listed in the article.
B-Ref is pro-rating his signing bonus.