DH · 2023

Brandon Belt

Toronto Blue Jays American League EastDH

Age: 35
B/T: L/L
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 230 lb
Number: #9

Born: April 20, 1988 in Nacogdoches, TX, USA
MLB debut: March 31, 2011

dbWAR: 17.3
PA: 404
AVG: .254
OBP: .369
SLG: .490
wRC+: 139

Brandon Belt is a designated hitter for the Toronto Blue Jays. In 2023 he hit 19 home runs and knocked in 43 RBIs, notching 86 hits across 404 plate appearances in 103 games. His batting average was .254, 2.1% higher than the league average of .248. He reached base at a .369 clip and slugged .490, for an OPS of .858, 16.9% higher than the league mark of .734 — the second best on his team, and 30th of 461 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 87.3 mph off the bat, hit 40.0% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 14.0% of them and made contact on 67.6% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 139 wRC+ puts his offence 39% above average. That comes to 1.9 dbWAR — +17.3 runs with the bat, -0.8 on the bases, -10.8 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2023.

wRC+139

wOBA.371

ISO.236

BB%15.1%

WAR1.9

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2023. These four terms sum to +19.2 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2023	103	404	86	19	43	0	61	141	.254	.369	.490	.236	.370	15.1%	34.9%	.371	+17.3	139	1.9
2022	77	298	54	8	23	1	37	81	.213	.326	.350	.138	.277	12.4%	27.2%	.306	-1.4	97	0.2
2021	97	381	89	29	59	3	48	103	.274	.378	.597	.323	.309	12.6%	27.0%	.409	+29.6	165	3.3
2020	48	179	46	9	30	0	30	36	.309	.425	.591	.282	.356	16.8%	20.1%	.430	+16.6	173	1.8
2019	155	616	123	17	57	4	83	127	.234	.339	.403	.169	.275	13.5%	20.6%	.323	-0.0	106	0.7
2018	112	456	101	14	46	4	49	107	.253	.342	.414	.160	.311	10.7%	23.5%	.330	+4.4	108	1.1
2017	104	451	92	18	51	3	66	104	.241	.355	.469	.228	.284	14.6%	23.1%	.357	+12.3	128	1.7
2016	155	655	149	17	82	0	104	148	.275	.394	.474	.199	.346	15.9%	22.6%	.378	+29.5	138	3.6
2015	137	556	138	18	68	9	56	147	.280	.356	.478	.197	.363	10.1%	26.4%	.364	+20.6	139	3.0

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Season

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2023. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHP	39	34	8	0	4	15	.235	.308	.265	.264	38.5%
vs RHP	365	305	78	19	57	126	.256	.375	.515	.383	34.5%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2023.

Loading 200 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 200 tracked batted balls in 2023. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 14.0%
Exit velocity: 87.3
Max exit velo: 109.9
Hard hit: 40.0%
Sweet spot: 46.0%
Launch angle: 19.8°

Barrel rate14.0%

Exit velocity87.3 mph

Hard hit rate40.0%

Contact rate67.6%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2023.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .248.

Situational hitting

How Brandon Belt hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by

By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
Situation	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
All situations	404	—	—	—	—	—	—	.254	.369	.490	.371
Bases empty	237	196	58	14	15	40	75	.296	.418	.602	.433
Runner on first	79	69	13	2	5	9	27	.188	.291	.319	.278
Runners on	167	143	28	5	28	21	66	.196	.299	.336	.283
RISP	88	74	15	3	23	12	39	.203	.307	.351	.289

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2023.

Head to head

Put Brandon Belt beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players

Brandon Belt

Similar players

Nearest 2023 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Edouard JulienMIN

wRC+: 133
HR: 16
AVG: .263
WAR: 2.7

Mike TroutLAA

wRC+: 135
HR: 18
AVG: .263
WAR: 2.7

Matt WallnerMIN

wRC+: 140
HR: 14
AVG: .249
WAR: 1.6

Comparable

Ryan NodaOAK

wRC+: 120
HR: 16
AVG: .229
WAR: 1.5

Comparable

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.