Hank Schulman tweeted that Belt got $2.9M deal for 2014.
ogc thoughts
All the interviews with the Giants was that they were trying to find a compromise between the $3.6M asked for by Belt and the $2.05M that the Giants offered. The mid-point was $2.825M, so they basically rounded up to the next $100K. The arbitrator's meeting was going to be held at 9AM Wednesday morning in Florida, but now Belt is flying back to Arizona to get back to spring training. Not sure why it took so long to reach such a logical compromise, but the deal is signed, so it's all good.
More importantly, that becomes the starting point for them to start building up a long-term contract to over at least the rest of his arbitration years, plus maybe one or two of his free agent years. Hopefully, the Giants will do something like that. Interviews with Giants management mention that they want to do something like that, so at least there is strong interest on the Giants part to do that. A deal like Allen Craig would be good. His was 5 years for $31M, so perhaps with the contract inflation, maybe $40M? That would be nice to control Belt into his early 30's.
OK, some relief, glad to have gotten that one out of the way.
ReplyDeleteNice interview with Belt: http://www.csnbayarea.com/show/470381/episode/735656
ReplyDeleteIt was very nice to read and hear how Belt handled the situation, how big a moment it was for him. Gut says that he signs for a long term deal at some point, both sides seem amenable to it, and Brandon seems to appreciate the Giants and vice-versa.
My best guess regarding why it took so long is the Giants really felt that their figure was closer to the "truth" and trying to get him to sign for south of the mid-way point, but then bit the bullet when it got close to the arbitration session, figuring that it wasn't worth the acrimony that could ensue should the session begin just to save a few hundred thousand. That's negotiations sometimes, it takes the deadline to get something finally done.
He seems ready to have a breakout year worthy of his hype early in his career. Of course, the Naysayers will say that it was because Giants management held him back, but the media has been very clear what exactly drove Belt's breakthrough: Giants coaches have been working on him to make changes with his batting mechanics, and he finally did move further back in the box, as well as change his grip (though that took the recommendation of Domonic Brown to finally get his OK to change; good thing Hensley Meulens talked to Brown then hooked the two up to chat). He mentioned those two specific changes in the interview, and said that he's going to continue to do that.
Our lineup is going to be monster if Sandoval, Belt, Posey, Pence, and Morse all hit like they look like they can hit when healthy and in a groove. That would put less pressure on the pitching, not that they need less pressure as they handled it well before, but still, that's nice for them not to have to worry as much.