Belt feels `under water' in spring debut, a week from Opening Day
Brandon Belt has been such a rare presence during the time the San Francisco Giants clubhouse is open to reporters that when he walked in Saturday morning, it elicited the following reaction from teammate Curt Casali.
“Oh, (expletive), you're playing today!”
The anticipation had been building for Belt's spring debut since the Giants began Cactus League play two weeks ago. As Evan Longoria's absence drew on, eventually demanding surgery, concern began to grow around his teammate on the other corner of the Giants infield. But, making his spring training debut Saturday against the Dodgers, Belt said he is ready to go — if not in midseason form — with Opening Day looming six days away.
Belt, who had been kept out of game action until Saturday with inflammation in his right knee, played four innings at first base and struck out swinging in both of his trips to the plate.
“The most important thing is just getting out there and getting my body used to playing again,” Belt said. “Today didn't go the way I wanted to and I didn't feel perfect today, but it was a good first step in getting to where I want to go. … I did the same thing last year. I'll end up being fine. It's just a matter of getting back into the routine of playing again.”
He couldn't have been greeted with a tougher matchup for his first competitive action this spring: starting for the Dodgers was Clayton Kershaw, the dominant left-hander who's owned Belt more than any other pitcher throughout his career (67 plate appearances, four hits, four walks, 30 strikeouts, .065/.134/.081).
“Only if results in this game mattered, then I'd say that's kind of cruel to throw him into that situation,”
manager Gabe Kapler said beforehand. “There's really nobody better equipped to have the important takeaways from today, independent of results, than Brandon. The goal is to get him on the dirt, get him in the batter's box, let him see live pitching.”
Kershaw delivered Belt three fastballs in his first at-bat, then got Belt swinging on a 72 mph hook in his second trip to the plate.
“I'm not sure that it would've mattered who you threw out there to be honest with you,” Belt said. “It's no easier when you've got to face a guy like that. It didn't feel great today, but that's part of it. … I'm not concerned about it. It might take me a few weeks to get back to where I want to be, but good thing about our team is there's guys who will pick you up if you're not at your best, so I'm not too worried about it.”
After arriving at camp with inflammation in his right knee, Belt had been limited until Saturday to drills on the backfield, which Kapler described as a “long, slow ramp” to getting on the field for the first time at Camelback Ranch.
Belt said he “worked out my legs hard this offseason
to avoid anything” but during a weight-lifting session soon before reporting for camp began to notice the discomfort in his knee. Multiple MRIs have shown no reason for lingering concern, Belt said.
“We, collectively,” Kapler said, referring to the gathered reporters, “aren't seeing all the work happening on the backfields. Very consistent defensive work. Very consistent at bats in sim games. Running and base running progression that has gotten us to this point.”
Belt, however, is the first to admit reps on the backfield can only mimic live game action so much.
“It doesn't get you the same reps, but it's better than nothing,” Belt said. “It felt like I was playing under water today. Still stiff. I just think there's not a whole lot you can do about it until you get out and start playing.”
When the Giants open the regular season Friday against the Marlins, Belt will have played, at most, three exhibition contests. But Kapler has maintained confidence that his veteran first baseman can produce like he did last season, when he only played four spring training games and slugged the most home runs of his career
(29), despite playing only 97 games.
Still, it was hard to ignore the stream of hitters walking across the field early Saturday morning at Scottsdale Stadium, forced to hold their team meeting in the visitor's clubhouse because of preparations for an unrelated gala that night.
As they made their way into the third base dugout, Belt had a hefty heat pack attached to his lower right leg (after using it on his knee, it slipped and “I was too lazy to pick it back up,” Belt explained). Longoria was dressed in street clothes, with his right hand bandaged from surgery on his index finger. La Stella, a day removed from his first day playing the field, had a noticeable limp stemming from offseason surgery on the sheath of his right Achilles.
At the very least, Kapler copped, the optics weren't great, with three of his projected starting infielders either hobbled or ruled out entirely, with less than a week until Opening Day. Add on to that LaMonte Wade Jr., who tweaked his knee in a Cactus League game last week and was set to be re-evaluated Saturday but, according to Kapler, was “still a little stiff.”