Blue Jays, former SF Giants first baseman contemplating retirement

Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Brandon Belt, an SF Giants legend, recently spoke about his future and potential retirement.
Blue Jays, former SF Giants first baseman contemplating retirement
Blue Jays, former SF Giants first baseman contemplating retirement /

Former SF Giants first baseman Brandon Belt might be playing his final season of Major League Baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays. On a recent episode of the Foul Territory podcast, Belt –– a free agent after the season after signing a one-year, $9.3 million deal last winter–– expressed his interest in evaluating his options as a free agent, but admitted he is contemplating hanging up his cleats.

Brandon Belt doubles off Logan Webb
Blue Jays 1B Brandon Belt, a longtime SF Giants slugger, watches a hit. (2023) / Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

“I'm still trying to figure out kind of what I want to do,” Belt said. “I'm 35 this year. I got two boys that are getting older, and it's getting tougher on all of us, for me, when I'm gone all the time. So this is something that I gotta take into consideration and figure out –– whether I want to keep going or go home and be with my family.”

In his first season sporting a new uniform, Belt has been a key factor for a Blue Jays club scrapping for a postseason spot in a crowded American League Wild Card race. Although he’s mashed 15 homers and 22 doubles with a .834 OPS in over 370 plate appearances, the 35-year-old says his future in baseball is still in question.

Despite his success in a stacked lineup, it’s not surprising for Belt to be contemplating walking away from baseball. He’s suffered significant injuries during the course of his career, like numerous concussions, hand injuries, and –– most notably –– a series of knee surgeries that have impacted his mobility. However, Belt says those issues aren’t necessarily the reason for questioning his future.

“I think physically, mentally, as far as baseball goes, I got a lot left in the tank,” Belt said. “I feel like I can go a few more years and play good, productive baseball. I feel like I can be competitive.”

After spending 12 seasons in San Francisco, Belt’s move across the northern border to Toronto surely wasn’t initially a smooth transition. In April, he struggled to adjust at the plate with a .534 OPS. Since May 1, He’s picked up the pace by recording the fourth-best wRC+ (150) among big league first basemen with at least 300 plate appearances. If he wanted to keep playing, Belt ideally would be able to pick up some suitors in a relatively weak free-agent market.

But it appears the toll the game has taken on the two-time World Series champion and his family leaves his big league future in question.

“I love the game of baseball, I love playing baseball, I love being on the field,” Belt continued. “It's a lot of the other stuff that I get tired of; the traveling and being at the field for hours and hours and hours at a time, being away from the family. So it's a lot of stuff I gotta consider this offseason. I'm just not sure where I'm headed yet.”

Belt was drafted by the SF Giants in the fifth round of the 2009 MLB Draft out of the University of Texas at Austin. He skyrocketed through the minor league system and soon played a vital role in San Francisco, winning two World Series rings in 2012 and 2014. Since the Giants moved west in 1958, Belt ranks favorably among the franchise’s top first baseman –– fourth in homers (175), fourth in runs scored (628), fifth in runs batted in (584), and fourth in fWAR (25.2).


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Steven Rissotto
STEVEN RISSOTTO

Steven Rissotto (he/him) is an award-winning journalist who currently covers the San Francisco Giants for SFBay.ca and Giants Baseball Insider. At 19-years-old in 2021, he joined SF Bay Media as the Giants beat writer, covering games a few times a week during the Giants’ record-setting 107-win season. Along with his game story coverage he is also the host of RizzoCast, a baseball podcast he founded in 2020 that features interviews with professional and amateur baseball players, coaches, media, fans, and everyone else around the game. Past guests have included Tyler Glasnow, Bob Kendrick, Shawn Estes, Bill Laskey, Renel Brooks Moon, Dave Dravecky, Ned Colletti, Denard Span, Ron Wotus, Joe Maddon, J.T. Snow and more. He is also a co-host with Tylor Hall on the Shutdown Inning Podcast, a show focused on all the latest happenings around the baseball world. Both podcasts are available on YouTube and everywhere podcasts are found. Currently, he is a student at San Francisco State University where he is majoring in Journalism with an emphasis in print/online and minoring in education. At SF State, he is the managing editor for Golden Gate Xpress, the student-run newspaper. He was formerly a member of the newspaper at Skyline College, where he served as editor-in-chief and news editor while also writing sports and features. He was formerly a student-journalist at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco, where he pitched for the baseball team and covered some of the biggest stories in campus history. This includes a new multi-sports facility on campus, the breaking news coverage of Riordan’s coed announcement and the COVID-19 pandemic. Steven is well-respected by his peers and has been honored numerous times by Student Newspapers Online, JEA, ACP, and the California Publishing Association. In 2021, he finished second in the country for Reporter of the Year for ACP among the two-year college schools.