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On Brandon Belt Celebration Day, the juxtaposition was impossible to ignore.

The former Giants first baseman was conducting an interview with reporters just outside the broadcast booths at Oracle Park, and behind him was a TV screen showing the Giants-Marlins game.

The screen served as a backdrop for the Q&A – and perhaps the Giants’ 2026 season as a whole, because struggling Rafael Devers was shown having another rough at-bat. The Giants beat the Marlins 6-2 Saturday afternoon while Devers continued his slump with another oh-fer, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

Belt is deeply rooted in Giants history as one of the team’s top five first basemen since it moved to the West Coast, along with Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Will Clark, and J.T. Snow. Whether Devers ever breaks into the top echelon at that position will play out through the end of his contract in 2033.

If the Giants first baseman of the past were to give the Giants first baseman of the present advice, what would that be? We asked.

“I’d tell him to remember who he is, one of the best hitters in the game,” Belt said. “To me, when you are that guy, eventually you figure it out, and you’ve got to keep your eye on it until you do. He knows that. He’s been around for a long time. I’d say just remember how good you are. It doesn’t matter who it is. You always need a little boost now and then, a little pick-me-up.”

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Belt played 13 big-league seasons, 12 with the Giants, and was known for having a power bat, a keen eye, and a tremendous glove. He was instrumental in two World Series championship runs but was a different player than Devers, who’s a converted first baseman with potentially more explosive power but has had major swing-and-miss issues since joining the Giants last June.

Devers is hitting .213 with a .544 OPS, two homers, and 36 strikeouts in 113 plate appearances, a far cry from his career norm. Perhaps Giants fans could take solace in the fact he had similar struggles at the start of last season before winding up with 35 homers and 109 RBIs.

Through April 25, 2025, Devers was hitting .194 with a .657 OPS, two homers, and 36 strikeouts in 121 plate appearances. A big difference was that he had 21 walks at this time last year. He now has five. That’s because pitchers don’t fear him and certainly don’t pitch around him. They simply throw him hard fastballs that whoosh right by him.

For now, he’s flashing his highest career strikeout rate and lowest career walk rate.

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“I always looked at him as one of the best in the game. I think that’s how most people look at him,” Belt said. “He will get it. I had to remind myself that all the time. What my dad used to remind me, ‘You’ll figure it out.’ You’ve got to keep grinding until you do. It sucks while it’s happening, but you usually end up being a better hitter once you come out on the other side. I think he’ll get it, though.”

The pregame ceremony for Belt was well-deserved. It was both touching and entertaining. Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow were on the field as MCs. The scoreboard showed Belt tributes throughout the day. And fans received orange Hawaiian shirts with the patented “C” on the chest, resembling the electrical tape that Belt used to put on his jersey to signify he was the self-appointed team captain.

In Belt’s speech, while surrounded by family, former teammates, and Giants personnel, he mixed in heartfelt emotion when discussing his deceased father, warm sentimentality when reminiscing about his teammates, coaches, and fans, and uncanny humor when looking back at his time in orange and black.

“Never thought this would happen,” Belt told the crowd, “but when I think about this day and the Giants organization doing this for me, the only thing that really pops to mind is … it’s about time. I thought this would happen the day after I left.”

Belt kept the clubhouse loose with his lightheartedness. He was the Baby Giraffe. He was the Captain. He often boasted about his athleticism, justified or not. Former manager Bruce Bochy told the story Saturday about the time he needed Belt to play left field and was told, “I don’t know why you wouldn’t move me out there. I’m the best athlete on this team.”

President of baseball operations and former teammate Buster Posey said Belt had a “dry, sarcastic, and also a crude-at-times sense of humor that kept us very loose during the course of the season.”

When the ceremony ended, Belt joined his wife, Haylee, and two young boys on a boat hauled by a truck around the ballpark. It was one final lap for the Captain, who threw balls into the crowd to the sounds of Styx’s “Come Sail Away.”

It has been three years since Belt last played in the majors, but he keeps up with the Giants through his old buddies, including Posey, and vows to eventually accept Posey’s offer to serve as a guest coach in spring training.

This year has been rough on the Giants, who played impressively Saturday when Robbie Ray and four relievers combined on a six-hitter and Casey Schmitt, Heliot Ramos, and Drew Gilbert homered. Devers is still trying to figure it out, a reason the Giants are a mere 12-15.

Perhaps players on the current roster ought to listen to what Belt told teammates back in the day. As George Kontos, another speaker Saturday, recalled, “You would walk up to him, and he’d look at you and just say, ‘Do better, be awesome like me.’”