Former Blue Jays slugger Brandon Belt puzzled why he doesn't have job

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Brandon Belt is surprised to be out of work after a decent 2023 season with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Following the worst season of his career — which began back in 2011 — Belt was a bargain signing by the Jays. He bounced back with 19 home runs — the second-highest total of his career — 23 doubles and 43 RBI in 339 at-bats. But the designated hitter/first baseman was not re-signed by Toronto and hasn’t yet landed with a new team.

The 35-year-old, who won two World Series with San Francisco, said recently on the JD Bunkis Podcast on Sportsnet that the lack of interest from teams has “kind of baffled me a little bit.

“Honestly haven’t had hardly any calls at all that have gone past the point of teams saying, ‘Hey, we’re interested. That’s it, we’re just checking in.’ We haven’t even gotten down to talking about money with anybody or anything like that,” Belt said on the podcast.

Belt battled injuries for years in San Francisco before undergoing surgery, but appeared to be back in form, so the lack of suitors seems a bit strange.

“I wish I had an answer for you. I just don’t,” Belt said.

Belt did tell Bunkis that he wouldn’t have accepted a non-guaranteed deal with an invite to spring training (Canadian superstar Joey Votto signed a deal just like that with Toronto, as did slugger Daniel Vogelbach).

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful or anything. It’s just that I feel like I have proven myself, especially over the past few years, that I don’t think I’m in that spot right now. … There was no reason for me to accept anything like that, and that’s not something I wanted to do,” Belt said.

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