San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
A winter of discontent for Giants’ Belt
First baseman details bouts with virus, mono
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Brandon Belt’s mysterious absence from the Giants’ camp turns out to be for mononucleosis, which he contracted a month after getting COVID19 in January.
“It hit me pretty hard, I couldn’t get out of bed for seven or eight days,” Belt said. “Once I got over the sickness part, it was pretty tough to get over the weakness, the lack of stamina, lack of energy, lack of strength, I’ve been dealing with that the last couple of weeks. But now I feel pretty dang good and every few days I’m taking huge steps forward. It was a huge ordeal, but I’m starting to get back on track.”
Belt, the team’s starting first baseman, already was considered a question mark for the Opening Night roster after offseason surgery to remove bone spurs from his right heel. His long recuperation from COVID and mono meant more time off his feet, which might have helped his heel recovery a bit, but he is now trying to regain the strength in that foot along with his body as a whole.
“I don’t know if I’ll make it to Opening Day,” on April 1, “but I’m gonna try my hardest to get there,” he said. “If I’m a couple of weeks late, that’s just what it has to be.”
“It hit me pretty hard, I couldn’t get out of bed for seven or eight days.”
Brandon Belt, Giants first baseman
Belt said he didn’t have COVID symptoms until the end of his quarantine after a positive test, when he suddenly felt lightheaded and weak during his workouts.
“I was really dizzy and just lost all energy after about 10 minutes of working out, so I had to deal
with that for three or four weeks, and right at the end of that is when I got mono,” Belt said. “All that kind of came together, and I got hit pretty hard.”
It took a toll on his body, he said.
“I just looked skinny,” Belt said, “I didn’t look strong at all.”
He’s not worried about putting the weight back on, though. He’s hit on the field the past two days, and his timing is improving. Perhaps the area he’s most pleased and maybe even surprised with is his running: Manager Gabe Kapler said Belt was going at a 17 mph clip on the treadmill Friday.
“My 50% is like everybody else’s 100%,” Belt joked of his speed. “I think people are on alert, they’ve got to be aware that Brandon Belt is coming for the stolenbase crown this year. But no, seriously, that was one of my first times to really see where I’m at, and it felt great. I really feel like sneaky Brandon Belt can come back and maybe get a few more bases in there.”
Belt feels as if he has an extra step, especially after heel surgery. “I’m gonna stick with my game plan to hit the ball hard and drive in those gaps, and you hit line drives in that ballpark, you can run for a long time,” he said. “With the new heel, hopefully I can do that.”
Belt, like fellow prominent Giants Brandon Crawford and Buster Posey, is going into his final season before free agency, a fact that isn’t uppermost on his mind. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen, and I don’t think it helps me to sit here and worry about it either,” Belt said. “As big ballplayers, we should treasure every season and every game, because it could be our last at any time”
Belt is expecting good things from the team, which surprised people last year by narrowly missing out on the expanded postseason and made a number of additions this winter.
“I really do believe we’re going to have a good chance at having a really good team this year,” he said. “I know people are going sleep on us a little bit. That’s fine, it’s what we’re used to. I think that could play to our advantage.”