6:49PM: Belt told The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly and other reporters that he received a cortisone shot in his knee today. Both Belt and Giants manager Gabe Kapler feel that the first baseman won’t miss much time, perhaps even just the minimum 10 days.
3:20PM: The Giants have placed first baseman Brandon Belt on the 10-day injured list due to right knee inflammation. Kevin Padlo was called up from Triple-A to take Belt’s spot on the active roster.
Belt is no stranger to injury problems in general, and inflammation in his right knee has led to two recent lengthy absences — a six-week stint on the IL last season, and Belt missed most of this year’s Spring Training. There was some thought that Belt might need to start the year on the IL in order to ramp up after missing so much of camp, but Belt was on the Opening Day roster and has been playing regularly, apart from a 10-day trip to the COVID-related IL.
It’s probably safe to assume that this knee issue and the positive COVID test have contributed to a somewhat slow start for Belt, who is still producing at a 110 OPS+/115 wRC+ pace by hitting .228/.342/.386 over his first 120 PA. By Belt’s recent high standards, however, this counts as a veritable slump, considering Belt delivered a whopping .988 OPS over 560 PA in the 2020-21 seasons.
This production led San Francisco to issue Belt (who turned 34 last month) a one-year, $18.4MM qualifying offer last fall, and Belt opted to take the one-year payday rather than test free agency. Belt has become a staple in the Bay Area, spending his entire pro career with the Giants and earning World Series rings in both 2012 and 2014.
Belt and the Giants can hope that this bout of inflammation won’t cost the slugger another six weeks, but the club does have some depth on hand even though LaMonte Wade Jr. also just went on the 10-day IL due to his own case of knee inflammation. Darin Ruf and Wilmer Flores figure to take the bulk of first base duty in Belt’s absence, and Tommy La Stella can provide a left-handed hitting complement to the first base picture now that he’s back from his own IL stint.
Brandon Belt @Forever Giant
The Giants. LOL
#SWEPT
And now Mets come to Oracle Park
Might explain why his bat has been cold.
But his knee is swell.
It’s nothing new for Belt. Just call him “absentee Captain.”
Belt is a very underrated player. Outside of SF at least.
And Bart has become Dave Kingman 2.0 and Chris Davis 2.0. Striking out 50% of the time calls for another catcher option.
His at bats are excruciating to watch. It’s like he steps into the box with 2 strikes.
Kingman & Davis way better.
At least they hit bombs.
Joey strikeout just makes wind.
Bart is teetering on major bust.
There’s time his name isn’t Beede. I made this comment he’s still a league average bat with the strikeouts! Different profile than posey but if they can bring those strikeouts down which seems inevitable, he’s more valuable than everyone is making him out to be. We all knew losing posey with that quickness was going to be tough. They had been playing Casali more but then he gets concussion protocol from that tough shot that took his mask off my guess. And now we have to rely on Bart as the primary again which emphasizes his current strikeout issue. I’m with you guys that the strikeout numbers are bad, but calling a number 2 prospect a total bust with like 100 games service time is a bit of a hot take.
Teetering? Clearly, he’s a bust
Rookie mistake to call anyone, so-and-so 2.0, on so little data.
Giants need to be checking in on Willson Contreras. It’s gonna take a big turnaround to right the ship this year for Bart, and as bad as he’s looked it will take a miracle.
Papierski yet to get a hit or get on base. Already 3 strikeouts. Not the Giants answer at catcher.
hello this is cool
Seems like poor journalism to not tell us how his knee caught on fire.
(This is a joke.)
this team cannot get healthy…
Hopefully the Giants fans and front office will re-set their expectations for this team to a more reasonable level after this series w/ the padres. I also hope they’ll be sellers and not buyers at the deadline. T heir upper minor league teams don’t seem to be producing major contributors ( Bart, Ramos ,Hjelle). AAA could use some restocking. Also, the Giants play in the toughest division in baseball.
Why are you listing Ramos and Hjelle? All they’ve had is a cup of coffee. And besides, Hjelle is their 28th ranked prospect. Ramos is their 5th ranked prospect, and has a FV of 50, so I’d expect at least ML average, and it’s reasonable to hope for better than that.
I agree, they don’t have much to show with young homegrown guys on the ML roster right now, but that will change once guys like Matos, and Luciano get to the majors. SF has a top 10 ranked farm system, so I’d say those that know better than you or I, don’t agree about their future.
After 40 games last year, the Giants were 24-16 (just 2 games ahead of this year’s pace) having just split a tough series against the Pirates of all teams. They were about a week away from getting brutally swept by the Dodgers and dropping from first place to third, causing everybody everywhere to proclaim the team as unable to hang with the big boys and write off their hot start as pure phony baloney.
Well, we all know how that team finished, so maybe it’s still a bit early to be projecting doom and gloom on this season.
Amen to that!! The Giants middle name is adversity. It doesn’t come easy. Ever. And yet…3 rings!!!
hopefully Bart can find the hole in his swing. Patrick Bailey (high ‘A’) is gonna need a year or two of seasoning and learning the pitching staffs before he sniffs the salt air at McCovey’s Cove.
shoot, just bring in Panda. was drafted as a catcher before the switch to the hot corner. he’ll even give us an extra bullpen arm if needed… 😉
Farhan needs to start trading pieces in the deadline. This Giants team keeps getting blown out in series.
The Padres are playing very good baseball.
Give credit where credit is due.
Sports analyst keep saying how much money the Giants could spend and way under the CBT. Don’t expect Zaidi to do anything big. Big to him is spending money on fringe players. So forget any big time trade deadline deals or even big free agent signing after the season. Only big splash you’ll see is balls hitting McCovey Cove.
The “Bruce Bochy CURSE” strikes again.
Giants have constant difficulties against the Padres.
There is a long season remaining.
It may be time to face the fact that BB may need to go under the knife.
Looking like $18.4 Million flushed down the toilet for this year.
Giants may need to tighten their BELT !!
Belt? When do they release Longoria?
Belt is done. Giants should have let him walk.
“Belt delivered a whopping .988 OPS over 560 PA in the 2020-21 seasons.”
That was 2020-2021. What’s he done in 2022 besides miss games and.240’s.
What has Zaidi done to address 1B long term? Ruff is not the answer.
While they might rebound, the Giants don’t look good. The hitting and starting pitching are issues. But the relievers don’t appear to be as good as they were last year. They got lit up by San Diego. Don’t see much at Sacramento that can help. FZ needs to create some magic. The next off-season should prove very interesting.
Do they retool, go all in, or something else? Longoria doesn’t come off the books until after 2023, Belt’s gone after this year, and Crawford is signed through next year. Yaz, amazingly, is under team control through 2025. LaStella signed through 2023. Starting staff aside from Webb is patchwork. I don’t envy Zaidi.
You’re wrong about Longoria. There’s a $13M team option and a $5M buyout for 2023. I fully expect him to be gone next season when they buy him out. And if he doesn’t turn it around this year, I could see him getting released.
Longoria is just biding his time and collecting his money. Definitely shouldn’t be with the Giants in 2023. If someone would take him off the Giants now that would not affect the team.
If Zaidi is willing to spend some real money on top tier players instead of dumpster diving.
It’s kinda bizarre to see people complaining about the Giants offense which has scored the second-most runs in all of baseball so far this year.
Not surprising, no offense. Belt lives on the 10-day IL.