Belt, Giants agree $6.2 million is a lot of money

Someone blinked.

We don't know who it was, but the Giants and Brandon Belt went the 'Full Lincecum' yesterday, coming to terms on a one-year contract just before the first arguments were hurled in a scheduled arbitration hearing.

Gimme five, uh, make that $6.2 million

Belt, who earned $3.5 million dollars for the dubious career-year-marred-by-injury in 2015 will collect a $6.2 million for the upcoming campaign. The figure allows both sides to declare victory. Belt earns a cool $900K more than the Giants' initial offer and nearly doubled his paycheck, while the Giants carved $1.3 million off the 28-year-old first baseman's asking price.

MLB Trade Rumors nailed the figure in its predictions, confirming our theory that it has hidden cameras and microphones in every front office, locker room, training facility and hotel coffee shop on the planet. 

GM Bobby Evans says the Giants still hope to sign Belt to a long-term deal, one that would buy out some of his free agent years set to begin in 2018. But as we've noted before, Belt would seem to be the odd man out as time marches on. Despite his protests, Buster Posey is likely to become the every day First Baseman at some point in his career; it's just a question of how long the Giants want to preserve their options while maintaining some continuity at the position.

Belt's deal maintains San Francisco's record of bargaining ahead of arbitration. The last time the Giants went to the mattresses was in 2004 with newly-acquired and soon-to-depart AJ Pierzynski. Since then Lincecum, Gregor Blanco, Joaquin Arias and even Belt himself have field the paperwork but reached compromises with the team.

With the first players reporting to Spring Training next week, the Giants have an active payroll of just under $166 million with salaries for team-controlled players including Joe Panik, Matt Duffy and Hunter Strickland yet to be added.