Where did Brandon Belt rank among MLB first basemen in 2019?

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – APRIL 12: Brandon Belt #9 of the San Francisco Giants watches the ball after hitting a double in the bottom of the eighteenth inning against the Colorado Rockies to the at Oracle Park on April 12, 2019 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /

Longtime San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt finally stayed healthy for an entire season in 2019, but his numbers were down across the board. Where did he rank among baseball’s top first basemen?

Since the 2011 season, Brandon Belt has been a staple at first base for the San Francisco Giants.

The 31-year-old has had some trouble staying healthy in recent years, topping 120 games played just twice during the five-year span from 2014 to 2018. However, when he was on the field, he as generally an above-average offensive performer, posting a 113 OPS+ during that span.

This season he stayed healthy enough to play a career-high 156 games, but his production bottomed out with a career-low 98 OPS+.

While he was still the primary first baseman, the Giants also used Pablo Sandoval (23 games), Tyler Austin (12 games), Austin Slater (8 games), Aramis Garcia (5 games), Buster Posey (4 games), Chris Shaw (4 games) and Stephen Vogt (1 game) at the position over the course of the year.

All told, San Francisco Giants first basemen finished the season with a .228/.326/.397 line and a .722 OPS that ranked 25th in the majors.

While that one all-encompassing offensive statistic tells us that the Giants were one of the worst-performing teams at the position performers at the position, what we set out to answer was where Belt ranked individually.

For the sake of this exercise, we limited the field of players under consideration to guys who spent at least 51 percent of their time at the first base position and also tallied at least 150 plate appearances.

That narrowed the field to just 47 players and ahead is a rundown of where Brandon Belt ranked among that group in a number of statistical categories.

Brandon Belt

PA: 616—8th
BA: .234—33rd
OBP: .339—24th
SLG: .403—35th
OPS: .742—t-28th
OPS+: 98—t-25th
H: 123—14th
2B: 32—t-7th
HR: 17—t-24th
RBI: 57—24th
R: 76—13th
WAR: 0.6—t-27th

Let’s start with the good.

After suffering myriad injuries over the years, Belt played 156 games and finished in the top 10 among first basemen in plate appearances and doubles.

Despite his low batting average, he maintained a respectable .339 on-base percentage thanks to a strong 13.5 percent walk rate. To that point, his 83 walks ranked 16th in the majors.

However, his .403 slugging percentage and .742 OPS made him a below-average offensive performer regardless of his position, and a well-below-average offensive contributor for a first baseman.

With two years and $34.4 million left on the five-year, $72.8 million extension he signed at the start of the 2016 season, the Giants are more or less stuck with him.

However, with top prospect Joey Bart closing in on the catching gig and Buster Posey likely to slide over to first base once he arrives, it’s fair to wonder how Belt factors into the team’s future plans.

Not all that long ago, he was an NL All-Star during the 2016 season, hitting .275/.394/.474 with 41 doubles, 17 home runs and 82 RBI en route to a 4.6 WAR season.

Can he return to that form, or at least something close?

Next. Where did Posey, Vogt rank among MLB catchers?

The San Francisco Giants are going to be looking for ways to bolster the offensive attack this offseason, and after Brandon Belt turned in a disappointing season, it will be interesting to see how they approach the first base position in 2020 and beyond.

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Longtime San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt finally stayed healthy for an entire season in 2019, but his numbers were down across the board. Where did he rank among baseball’s top first basemen?

Brandon Belt

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