Reports: Brandon Belt, SF Giants championship era stalwart, joins Blue Jays
Belt #Belt
One of the last players from the San Francisco Giants championship era has played his final home game by the bay, as Brandon Belt has reportedly agreed to terms with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The deal, which was first reported by Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday night, is reportedly for one year and $9.3 million.
(The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
With his lumbering gait and prominent neck, Belt earned the nickname “Baby Giraffe” during his rookie season in 2011. When a real baby giraffe was born that year at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, the park named the calf Brandon. The two Brandons even got a chance to meet.
Belt would go on to play 12 seasons with the Giants, earning World Series rings in 2012 and 2014 and an All-Star selection in 2016. The first baseman signed a $72.8 million contract with the Giants in 2016 that kept him in San Francisco through last season.
Throughout his career, Belt was one of the most hotly debated players among Giants fans. Some loved the lanky infielder for his goofy attitude, brilliant offensive flashes and dependable defensive presence at first base. Others blamed him for never quite living up to the high expectations that followed him since the minors and his propensity for striking out in key moments. The (mostly) lighthearted discussions became known as the #BeltWars.
In 2021, Belt enjoyed a career resurgence, slugging a career-high 29 home runs and helping the Giants to a team-record 107 wins. Belt even sarcastically named himself team “captain” in September of that year, a stunt that paid off during the next Opening Day when he entered Oracle Park aboard his own boat.
But the 34-year-old’s production fell off in 2022 as he struggled to a .213 batting average before electing for season-ending knee surgery in September.
According to Slusser, the Giants had conversations with Belt but the Blue Jays were more aggressive in their pursuit. Losing Belt may seem like small potatoes compared to missing out on Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa but it leaves one more question in what has been a particularly puzzling off-season for President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi and the entire Giants brass.
With Belt’s departure and Buster Posey’s retirement in November of 2021, shortstop Brandon Crawford is the sole remaining member of the Giants’ 2012 and 2014 World Series teams.