Belt’s hitting mantra helps Blue Jays bats

Don't chase pitches, chase good at bats has become a mantra around the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse.

TORONTO – Don’t chase pitches, chase good at bats has become a mantra around the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse.

Catcher Danny Jansen said it in a post-game scrum after he had two home runs in Toronto’s 7-0 rout of the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday and then Blue Jays manager John Schneider repeated it the next morning.

But its origins trace back to veteran outfielder Brandon Belt, who said it to Jansen when the two were talking about hitting during a homestand in mid-April.

“It’s just sometimes you forget the most simple things in baseball,” said Belt outside his locker at Rogers Centre. “It’s not that other people don’t know that, it’s just that sometimes people need to be reminded.

“I’ve been through it so much now that I tend to remember it a little bit more. I think that when you can have that outside voice to remind you every now and then it definitely helps. I need it. I need it sometimes too. We all need it.”

The 35-year-old Belt spent the first 12 seasons of his Major League Baseball career in San Francisco, winning two World Series with the Giants. He signed a one-year deal with the Blue Jays worth US$9.3 million in January, adding some outfield depth and an experienced veteran voice to Toronto’s clubhouse.

He said the idea of “chasing good at bats” has been drilled into him since his time in San Francisco’s minor league system.

“It doesn’t really just stick with you right away because you’re trying to get hits, you want to get into the big leagues,” said Belt. “That’s something that they try to drive into your head early on: quality at bats.