Ex-Blue Jay Brandon Belt ‘baffled’ he still hasn’t been signed

There have been plenty of late signings in free agency – as Cody Bellinger, JD Martinez, Blake Sell and Jordan Montgomery all finalized their spots for at least 2024 after the start of spring training – this cycle, but Brandon Belt, an All-Star in 2016 and two-time World Series champion with the Giants, remains unsigned.

And that intrigued the 35-year-old first baseman, outfielder and designated hitter.

“It confused me a little bit,” Belt said Friday during an appearance on the “JD Bunkis Podcast” on Sportsnet. “Honestly, I haven’t gotten almost any calls that got past the point where teams were saying, ‘Hey, we’re interested.’ That’s it, we just checked in. We haven’t even started talking to anyone about money or anything like that.

“I wish I had an answer for you. I just don’t do it.

Belt, who spent the first 12 years of his career with the Giants, signed a one-year contract with the Blue Jays before the 2023 season, and he hit .254 with an .858 OPS and a .369 on-base percentage. over 103 games – serving primarily as a designated hitter in a lineup that also included George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.

He revealed in August that he planned to retire near the end of the 2022 season, undergoing season-ending arthroscopic surgery to treat the cartilage in his right knee, according to MLB.com, and fix a problem that had persisted since seven years.

His future, at that point, depended on the outcome of the surgery and his recovery, Belt told NBC Sports at the time, but he ended up signing a deal with the Blue Jays, earning a top spot of their roster and finding it “fairly easy” to find a free agency solution despite the injury.

Belt said he was “a little hesitant” about what he wanted to do for 2024 – not sure if it was time to “hang it up,” he said on the podcast this week – but he knew he could still add to a lineup. , although Belt acknowledged he wouldn’t have agreed to a non-guaranteed deal that simply contained an invitation to spring training.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful or anything,” Belt said on the podcast. “It’s just that I feel like I’ve proven myself, especially over the last few years, and I don’t think I’m in this situation right now. … I had no reason to agree to something like that, and it’s not something I wanted to do.

Outfielder and designated hitter Tommy Pham still hasn’t signed either, and Montgomery — who won the World Series with the Rangers — didn’t sign until Tuesday, when he joined the Diamondbacks.

Martinez, who landed a one-year deal with the Mets, signed so late in spring training that he had to start the season with minor league at-bats before joining their regular roster.

But Belt, from the way he described his reality, didn’t even generate much interest.

“I feel like I’m in my prime, I think, as far as approach and what I want to do in the game,” Belt said, “and what my goals are when I go out to play every night. So it sucks in that regard, but I don’t even know.

“I don’t really have a clear answer on how I feel about it either. It just hasn’t happened to me and I’m not sure how I feel about it.