Will former SF Giants first baseman retire after not being signed in 2024?

Former SF Giants first baseman Brandon Belt went unsigned all of 2024 after a solid 2023 campaign. Does this apparent lack of interest mean that the Baby Giraffe is going to have to retire or will he try and mount a comeback in 2025?

It was rather head-scratching why no team took a chance on Brandon Belt in 2024. We do not know the whole story. Perhaps Belt held out for a major league deal while most teams were only interested in giving him a minor leage contract with an invitation to Spring Training.

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Even if that is true, Belt probably deserved a major league contract based on the numbers he put up in 2023. That season with the Toronto Blue Jays, Belt hit .254/.369/.490 with 19 home runs and 43 RBI in 339 at-bats across 103 games. Those are respectable numbers for a veteran in his mid-30's.

One would have thought that a team looking to balance out their order with a left-handed bat would have jumped at the chance to sign a guy like belt who could serve as your designated hitter or first baseman.

Perhaps his extensive injury history is what scared teams off from committing too much money to him. Or perhaps his lack of versatility meant that teams felt he did not provide enough value for whatever contract he was looking for. Despite this, Grant Brisbee of The Athletic made a compelling case that several postseason teams could have used Belt to make it further into October.

Despite this, Belt did not sign anywhere and instead he spent 2024 at home. He did not seem to mind, and he even attended a Giants game at Oracle Park with his family and Darin Ruf, who recently landed a college coaching gig.

It seems unlikely that Belt will be signed this offseason. Unless he wants to take the sort of minor league deal he was probably offered last season, it seems exceedingly unlikely that a team would want to take a chance on a player with Belt's injury history especially after he had a whole year off.

This could mean that Belt will decide to retire after a very respectable career in which he was a great Giant and helped bring two World Series titles to San Francisco. He will always be remembered as a hero for his efforts.