Report: Brandon Belt The Only Player in MLB To Accept Qualifying Offer

 

After an 11-year career all spent with the San Francisco Giants, Brandon Belt has no intentions of going anywhere else. He has officially accepted the Giants' $18.4M qualifying offer, foregoing free agency. 

Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted out the news, just half an hour before the deadline for players around the league to accept or reject their teams' qualifying offers. Belt is the only player in the majors offered a QO to accept it. 

The 33-year-old first baseman first came up with the Giants in 2011, and has known no other major league organization. 

After a career year in the power department, posting a personal-best 29 home runs along with a .975 OPS, some thought Belt might take his chances on free agency for the first time in his career. Former MLB GM Jim Bowden even went so far as to suggest he could attract a 4-year deal worth close to $80M. 

In accepting the Giants' $18.4M one-year QO, he gets a raise from the $16M he earned in the final year of a 5-year contract he signed in 2016 that paid him a total of $72M. There is still a possibility that Belt and the Giants could work out a longer deal. 

Belt has had an injury-riddled career with San Francisco, playing only two full seasons since 2016. But as the 'captain' of the team, along with his power-outburst in 2021, and his leadership for a Giants team that won 107 games, he's far more valuable to the Giants than any other team. 

Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports