Giants’ Belt details bout with COVID-19
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> In the days leading up to spring training, Brandon Belt was tired, had body aches and couldn’t get out of bed.
The San Francisco Giants first baseman was also certain he did not have COVID-19. That’s because he’d recently tested positive, experienced symptoms and recovered from contracting the coronavirus.
“I tested positive (in January),” Belt said. “I didn’t have any symptoms at first until I reached the
end of my quarantine when I was working out, I started feeling really winded, really light-headed, really dizzy and lost all energy after about 10 minutes of working out.”
As soon as Belt started to feel better, he was diagnosed with mononucleosis.
“I had to deal with (COVID-19 symptoms) for about three to four weeks,” Belt said. “And right at the end of that three-to-four weeks is when I got mono. All of that kind of came together and I got hit pretty hard.”
While players around the country were working out in anticipation of the start of spring training, Belt was stuck in bed for “seven-to-eight days.”
“I couldn’t get out, I’d get up to see my family and I was right back in bed,” Belt said. “I was in bed most of the day, a good majority of the day except for maybe an hour or two. Then once I got over the sickness part, it was pretty tough to get over the weakness I had and the lack of stamina, lack of energy, lack of strength.”
It took Belt several weeks to begin feeling like himself again, but he’s now participating in baseball activities in spring camp and was seen taking batting practice prior to Friday’s game at Scottsdale Stadium.
“Now I feel pretty dang good and every couple of days, I’m taking huge jumps forward. I feel like I’m pretty close to getting back to normal. It was a long ordeal, obviously wasn’t that fun, but right now I feel like I’m getting back on track.”
Belt doesn’t have an exact timeline for when he’ll be able to play in a Cactus League game, but he believes he’s inching closer to his first at-bats of the spring.
An Opening Day start isn’t out of the question yet, but even if he wasn’t slowed by mono, the Giants weren’t locking him into the lineup. After undergoing surgery to remove a right heel spur in October, Belt spent the offseason rehabbing and getting in shape with the goal of being ready to play games by the middle of spring training.
“This whole time I thought I was probably going to be a couple of weeks late, nothing too crazy,” Belt said. “I didn’t really know if I expected to be on time, I was going try to be on time for Opening Day but I didn’t know if that was going to happen or not. I’m still kind of in the same situation, I don’t know if I’ll make Opening Day but I’m going try my hardest to get there.”
Belt, now 32, missed Opening Day in 2020 due to a right heel injury, but returned during the first week of the season and enjoyed the best season of his career. He set single-season highs in average (.309), onbase percentage (.425) and OPS (1.015) and received one ninth-place National League MVP vote.
As he enters the final year of his contract with the team that drafted him back in 2009, it would be natural for Belt to look ahead and start pondering his future. Given all he’s been through in the last few months, he’s instead focused solely on staying healthy and returning to the field.
“As big league ballplayers, we should treasure every season and every game because it could be our last at any time,” Belt said. “That’s not what I’m focused on right now, though. I’m focused on being productive.”