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Born: Lake Worth, Florida
Age: 22 (8/17/96)
Height/Weight: 6’1”/230 lbs.
Position: 1B
Bats/Throws: R/R
School: South Florida
Joe Genord lettered for three years at Park Vista High School, winning All-County honors in his junior and senior seasons. In his junior year, he hit .387/.462/.559 with a pair of home runs, and in his senior year, he hit .282/.460/.494 with four. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 19th round of the 2015 MLB Draft, 582nd overall, but declined to sign with them, instead attending the University of South Florida.
He appeared in 45 games in his freshman year, starting 40 of them, 16 games at catcher, 13 at first base, and 11 as the Bulls’ DH. He hit .270/.325/.428, hitting 6 home runs, which was good for second on the team. In 2017, he started in 58 games, all at first base, and hit .259/.352/.439 with 9 home runs. He had an excellent season in 2018, hitting .306/.394/.633 in 48 games, one behind the plate and the rest at first base. He went undrafted and returned to school for his senior year. In his capstone year, the slugger hit .333/.446/.618 in 53 games, all at first. In both his junior and senior seasons, Genord led the bulls in batting average, doubles, home runs.
Power is the slugger’s carrying tool. He has middle-of-the-order raw power capable of carrying for a team when he gets hot and goes on a tear. Genord does not get cheated at the plate, taking mighty hacks at virtually every at-bat. His swing is long, with a lot of uppercut. This leads to a lot of swing-and-miss in his game. He is currently able to work around that thanks to the amount of walks he is able to draw, but seemingly that is from pitchers not wanting to challenge him rather than a refined eye at the plate.
As a first baseman, Genord is a fringe defender. He is a good receiver but does not exhibit much range and has shown poor footwork around the bag. In addition, he has experience catching, being moved off of the position not because of shortcomings there, but because teammate Tyler Dietrich has been a mainstay there, leading the NCAA in innings behind the plate during his time at South Florida. Behind the dish, he has a strong arm but his defensive development lags far behind players of his age because of the lack of playing time he has there.