San Francisco Giants: It’s time to trade Brandon Belt
By Matthew Rios
With the San Francisco Giants still in the middle of a rebuild, the organization needs to trade away Brandon Belt before the 2019 season begins.
With spring training less than three weeks away, Brandon Belt has become expendable for the San Francisco Giants.
The 30-year-old first baseman has never really lived up to his full potential and last season was no different. The 6-4, 235-pound veteran is entering his ninth season with the Giants and let’s just say it’s been a long eight years.
His struggles in the MLB so far have been in part due to injury as he only has four season where he has played 130+ games and only two seasons where has played 150+ games. In his career, he has missed 368 games while playing a career total of 928. He is only averaging 116 games a season, and for the Giants, who seem to always have trouble fielding a decent outfield, Belt has just added one more problem to their list by not being a reliable and dependable first baseman.
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His season average in home runs is only 14. That’s right — 14. For a first baseman, especially one as big as he is, to only average 14 home runs is a big problem for the Giants . Keeping Belt is not the way to fix that problem.
He has never reached the 20-home run mark in any of the eight seasons he has played. He takes most of his at-bats batting fourth as he has 173 at-bats in that position. Batting fourth, he has an average of .254 with only 44 hits and 23 RBIs. From 2016 to 2018, Belt only had 169 hits at AT&T Park, now known as Oracle Park, in 650 games played. In those same three years, he only hit a total of 22 home runs and only 75 extra base hits in total.
The home runs totals are not the only part of his game that has really made it hard for Giants fans to get on board with him. His postseason struggles have also been rough.
In 37 postseason games, he has only 29 hits and 2 home runs with a batting average of .228. MLB.com has him ranked 19th in their top 20 first baseman currently in the league. Last season, he ranked 21st in games played among all first baseman. In fielding percentage, he is not even ranked on ESPN.com.
One MLB club that could be interested in acquiring Belt is the Pittsburgh Pirates, as one of their many needs is a first baseman.
Rumor has it the Giants are in the running for Josh Harrison, and I am sure that they can figure out a deal for him that includes Belt. By trading Belt, they have two other options here as they can try Aramis Garcia at first base as he is the 15th-ranked prospect in the Giants’ system. The second option is moving Buster Posey to first base as he is a pivotal bat in the Giants lineup.
Next. Giants gauging trade interest in Evan Longoria. dark
For San Francisco to get back to where they were in the three years they won the World Series, getting a quality, power hitting and dependable first baseman is definitely one thing that the boys by the bay should have high on their priority list.