Belt and Giants have mutual interest
Re-signing Bryant might be low on club’s list of priorities
SAN FRANCISCO >> When the Giants traveled to Seattle to open the 2021 season, Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt joined Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal as the second trio of teammates in franchise history to start in the same Opening Day lineup together nine times in their careers.
This year’s Opening Day start seemed almost certain to be the last Posey, Crawford and Belt would enjoy together.
Posey began this season as the only member of the trio with a club option for 2022, but at $22 million, it was unrealistic to think the Giants would consider exercising it for a player who had undergone major hip surgery in 2018, posted career-lows at the plate in 2019 and then sat out in 2020.
Crawford, 34, was the oldest shortstop in the league and was set to become a free agent among a group of high-profile shortstops that includes Astros star Carlos Correa, Dodgers slugger Corey Seager and Rockies power-hitter Trevor Story.
Belt, 33, was coming off one of the best seasons of his career, but he too was set to hit free agency and the Giants would be presented with an opportunity to turn a page and build around a new core.
Seven months after the season began, Crawford has already signed an extension, Posey is almost certain to return to the Giants if he wants to continue his career and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi spoke about Belt on Monday as if re-signing the first baseman was one of the team’s most urgent priorities.
“You could talk about his value both in how he played down the stretch and how much we missed him once he went down,” Zaidi said. “He’s a really, really important part of this team.”
Belt’s career-high 29 home runs led the Giants, but due to several injuries
including a sprained knee and a fractured thumb, the Texas native only played 97 games for the club this year.
Belt’s lengthy injury history makes committing to an extension a risky endeavor for the Giants’ front office, but Zaidi and Scott Harris also recognize that Belt has begun to thrive under manager Gabe Kapler and his coaching staff.
Since the start of the 2020 season, Belt’s 163 wRC+ (a park-adjusted stat measuring runs created) ranks third in the majors among batters with 500plus plate appearances behind Juan Soto of the Nationals (171) and Bryce Harper of the Phillies (164). During that same timeframe, Belt’s .595 slugging percentage is second only to Padres star Fernando Tatís Jr. (.598).
“He’s happy here, I think he feels really appreciated,” Zaidi said. “And we appreciate him. He’s been one of the best hitters in baseball over the last couple of years. So yeah, he’s a big part of this team and we’ll certainly hope those are productive dialogues.”
Before Belt was hit by a pitch on Sept. 26 that fractured his thumb and kept him off of the Giants’ NLDS roster, he spoke to the Bay Area News Group about his career in San Francisco and his longstanding friendship with Crawford and Posey. The first baseman acknowledged that a return to the Giants wasn’t necessarily in his control, but said he would certainly be open to a reunion this winter.
“This has been home for me for 10 years and I’d love to hang around,” Belt said. “I’d love to be a Giant.”
Zaidi said the Giants had dialogue with Belt’s agent during the season and will continue to do so in the near future, but if the two sides are unable to quickly negotiate a new contract, the team has a way of gaining a bit of leverage.
Belt is eligible to receive a qualifying offer, which is a one-year deal worth $18.4 million that must be extended five days after the World Series ends. If Belt were to receive a qualifying offer from the Giants, he would have 10 days to accept or decline, but a decision to decline would mean that any team that ultimately signed Belt would forfeit a high draft pick.
Some teams have been reluctant to sign free agents who have a qualifying offer attached to them, but the process of extending offers has generally worked well for the Giants under Zaidi. The Giants received compensatory draft choices after pitchers Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith declined qualifying offers and signed with other clubs while starter Kevin Gausman agreed to return to San Francisco on a qualifying offer for the 2021 season. RE-SIGNING BRYANT APPEARS TO BE LOW ON PRIORITY LIST >> Fewer than three weeks after being traded from the Cubs to the Giants, Kris Bryant was pressed about his future.
The former National League MVP and World Series champion was off to an outstanding start with his new club as Bryant endeared himself to the Giants by batting .321 with a .948 OPS in his first 15 games.
For all the mutual goodwill that existed, Bryant had to be looking forward to free agency. Right? There was no way his agent, Scott Boras, would let Bryant consider signing a contract extension before hitting the open market. Right?
“I run the show,” Bryant said definitively.
At the time, it seemed as if Bryant could be a key part of the Giants’ next core.
From that point forward, Bryant hit .248 with a .720 OPS while struggling defensively at multiple position in a way that will undoubtedly give the Giants caution regarding a
possible reunion heading into the offseason. Bryant was the team’s best hitter aside from Posey during the Giants’ best-of-5 NL Division Series against the Dodgers, but it will be difficult for the front office to shake the reality that Bryant’s tenure in San Francisco could be described as underwhelming.
He battled throwing issues at third base, showed limited range in the outfield, and had trouble tracking down flyballs in right field inside Oracle Park. The Giants touted Bryant’s defensive versatility and Bryant deserves credit for being willing to move around the diamond on a daily basis to allow the team to start its best possible lineup, but his defense was more of a liability..
Bryant’s bat, while still above average, wasn’t on par with some of the Giants’ top second-half performers.
“Looking at his stretch with us, I know there was a lot of talk on how he got off to a good start, homered his first game, and then his numbers weren’t quite at the same level in September,” Zaidi said. “But that’s the reality of a really small sample. When you’ve got traded at the deadline, you’ve got two months with a team, 50 to 60 games and every player is going to have hot and cold spells.”
At the Giants’ end-ofseason news conference on Monday, Zaidi hinted that while signing Bryant to a long-term deal is a consideration, it’s not as much of a priority as building around Posey, re-signing Brandon Belt and fortifying a rotation that’s essentially a blank slate behind ace Logan Webb.
“For us, the move at the deadline was really about pushing chips in with this team, which we thought was a really special team and had a chance to do some special things and did,” Zaidi said. “But we recognize that (Bryant is) a superstar talent and it’s going to be a really competitive market for his services. I’m sure we’ll have conversations there, but he’s going to have a long line of suitors.”
While it’s true Bryant’s strong offensive track record and ability to play a variety of positions will make him one of the most coveted free agents this winter, it’s fair to wonder whether the Giants would be best served committing more than $100 million to Bryant, who turns 30 in January. Boras will assuredly seek a nine-figure deal with a length of at least five years, and while the Giants can absolutely afford that type of a contract, they may prefer using their newfound payroll flexibility to add multiple established starting pitchers and find other upgrades..
One name to monitor if the Giants don’t bring back Bryant is Dodgers utility man Chris Taylor, who can play all the same positions as Bryant plus shortstop, and has posted an above-league-average OPS in five straight seasons. At 31, Taylor is expected to be far less expensive than Bryant in free agency and he has a relationship with Zaidi dating back to their time together in Los Angeles.
It’s still possible Bryant returns, but a deal to bring him back would likely be made later in the offseason and could be an indication the slugger’s market didn’t develop as Boras anticipated.