Brandon Belt has been a fixture in the San Francisco Giants lineup for over a decade. In that time, Belt helped lead the team to two World Series championships and two other playoff appearances. But his career may be circling the drain.
Belt is having one of the worst years of his career and it may be time for him to take one for the team.
Mark Willard and Joe Shasky talked about Belt’s performance and what’s next for the first baseman on Audacy’s “Garlic Fries and Baseball Guys” podcast.
“I said it on the way into this series, and I’m gonna say it again on the way out: It’s time for Brandon Belt to sit down,” Willard said (1:43 in player above). “And this is not for punishment. This is because I believe in all sports there’s a line that needs to be ridden and that is we love it if you want to grind it out, we love it if you want to play hurt, we love it if you want to give it the old college try. But in order to do that, that lesser version of you still needs to be better than who would replace you, and in this case it’s obviously not after the bunt escapades late last week.
“Then they went to Colorado and to me, I was surprised to not find out he was gonna be on the IL as of Friday. Instead, he played two of the three games and went 0-for-8 with two strikeouts, can barely get to first base when he hit a ground ball. So, that’s all. He’s not better than what his replacement would be. Not even close. So, to me, I gotcha captain, you’re hurt, you gotta take a seat.”
The Giants were perhaps a bit spoiled with Buster Posey’s sendoff last year. He hit .304 with an .889 OPS as San Francisco won 107 games to finish atop the NL West. But not all players can go out on their own terms.
“Very few of our favorite athletes go out on top, go out because it’s on their merit or on their choice or their decision. This feels like one of those ugly endings,” Shasky said. “There’s no other way around it.
“I’ve been one of his biggest detractors and even I feel a tremendous amount of empathy for him. He’s trying to grind it out. He’s hurting the team. He’s just not a good ballplayer right now when he’s playing hurt like he is and it sucks,” he continued. “The only way out is you need to literally save him from himself and you need to take him off the list in terms of active players.”
Belt is batting a career-low .213 with an OPS of .676 through 78 games. This is after hitting 29 home runs with a .274 average (.975 OPS) last season. He’s fallen off a cliff in August with his 15 strikeouts more than doubling his seven hits, resulting in a .135 batting average through 52 at-bats.
It’s tough to watch for Giants fans given Belt’s largely successful career. The guys argued that he’s the fourth-best first baseman in Giants history as he manned the position for two World Series victories.
“I will defend the career of Brandon Belt anytime, but I’m done defending right now,” Willard said. “Right now, and again, this is not a rip job, I get what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to help and he sees himself as the leader of this team and it’s been a wobbly season that is on life support and he’s trying to be there for his group and/or put something good on tape for free-agent conversations next year. But the bottom line is, two things happened over the last week: A) You did not perform and then B) You waved a white flag.”
Willard was referencing Belt’s two-strike, two-out bunt against the Diamondbacks last Thursday.
“To me, that bunt with two strikes – I’m not gonna get so mad at the decision – I’m gonna get upset because the message that it sends which remains unacknowledged at this hour. The message was ‘I can’t get a hit off of you. I can’t get a hit off of you,’” Willard continued.
“And Zac (Gallen) is a good pitcher, but you can’t have ‘I can’t’ in the middle of your order with two men on in the seventh or eighth inning. You can’t do that. So if you can’t, you gotta go find someone who can.”
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