Giants' Brandon Belt: Agrees to five-year extension
Belt agreed to terms Friday on a five-year extension with the Giants, CSN Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic reports.
The financial details are not immediately available, but the deal is reportedly similar to the six-year, $75 million extension the team handed Brandon Crawford recently, although Belt's deal is expected to be slightly bigger. An average annual value of about $16 million per year starting in 2017, with a tweak to his current one-year deal for 2016 is expected. The Giants are locking up a promising young core, as Belt, who is about to turn 28, would have been a free agent following the 2017 season. San Francisco may be getting Belt at a bargain if it turns out that he has not yet peaked as a player, which is quite possible. Last year he slashed .280/.356/.478 with 18 home runs and nine steals in 137 games, and he is already getting on base at a .409 clip in the early going this year.
