Joey Bart #14

Attended Buford High School in Buford, Ga. Became the starting catcher for the school’s baseball team his freshman year. Is Buford’s all-time leader in hits, RBI and runs scored...Bart is engaged to Madeline Frye, who he met at Georgia Tech. They’ve been together four years. A finance major, she works for a prestigious private equity company in Atlanta...His father, Thomas, played baseball at the University of Miami and Penn State University. Has two older brothers, Danny and Mikey...Mikey was a 270-pound, defensive end at North Carolina and had stints on a few NFL practice squads, including the New England Patriots. He pursued a law degree and now works for the family business, which is operating two Zaxby’s Chicken Fingers & Buffalo Wings franchises near their hometown in Buford, Ga...Comes from a family of athletes and outdoors enthusiasts, particularly fishing and hunting...During the off-season, Bart enjoys competing in fishing tournaments. There’s a boat ramp into Lake Lanier a quarter mile from Bart’s house...Selected by Tampa Bay in the 27th round of the 2015 draft but did not sign and went to Georgia Tech...Played in 144 games, starting 143 of them at catcher or designated hitter. Hit .321 with 30 home runs, 35 doubles, 112 RBI and 115 runs scored over three years at Tech. Posted a .544 slugging pct. and .407 on-base pct. in his Tech career...Named the 2018 Johnny Bench Award winner, first in school history. Also named 2018 First-Team All-America selection by Baseball America, NCBWA, Perfect Game/ Rawlings and Collegiate Baseball...Tabbed the 2018 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Player of the Year, ACC Defensive Player of the Year and first-team all ACC selection. Led the conference in hitting with a .359 batting average. Led Georgia Tech and ranked second in the ACC in slugging pct. (.632), third in on-base pct. (.471), third in total bases (139), fourth in hits (79), and fifth with a team-high 16 home runs...Drafted by SF with the second overall pick in the draft. Was the highest MLB Draft pick in Georgia Tech history and the highest selection by the Giants since taking Will Clark with the second overall pick in 1985.

2023

Spent the majority of the season at Triple-A…hit .248 with 33 runs, 12 doubles, six home runs, 28 RBI and a .750 OPS in 60 Triple-A games...Made his second career Opening Day roster, but was quickly placed on the Injured List on April 2 (retroactive to March 31) with a mid-back strain and missed seven games...Hit .231 with eight runs, five doubles, four RBI and a .581 OPS for SF before being placed on the IL for a second time on May 19 (retroactive to May 18) with a left groin strain…missed 20 games and was optioned to Triple-A upon his return to play...Started 26 of his 30 games played for SF, all at catcher…had a 3.72 catcher’s ERA in the Majors...Caught RHP Alex Cobb’s shutout on April 24...Batted .270 with an .818 OPS in 42 games at Triple-A Sacramento from July 1 through the end of his time there.

2022

In what was his first full season with the Giants, Bart batted .215 with 17 extra-base hits (six doubles, 11 home runs) and 25 RBI in 97 games...He made 83 starts, 80 at catcher and three as the DH...Had a 4.00 catchers ERA...Became the fifth rookie catcher in SF-era history to hit at least 10 HRs (as a catcher) in a season...He played in 97 games w/SF and seven in Triple-A in 2022...the 104 games were the most he’s played in a single season in his pro career (previous high was 79 games in 2019 in the minors)…Made his first career Opening Day roster...His first career Major League home run came on Opening Day on April 8 vs. Miami off eventual Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara...Became the first Giants rookie to homer on Opening Day since J.R. Phillips in 1995...the last Giants player to hit his first career home run on Opening Day was Will Clark in 1986...After appearing in 36 games with the Giants and having a slash line of .156/.296/.300 with five extra-base hits and a strikeout rate of 45.4%, the Giants optioned him to Triple-A Sacramento on June 8 to work on making contact...developing him at the big league level just wasn’t working even though the Giants were pleased that he’d boosted his walk rate and was good behind the plate...He spent most of the month of June working with the coaching staff rather than actually playing in games, but appeared seven times with the River Cats, hitting .286/.355/.393...An injury to Curt Casali left the Giants needing a catcher in SF and Bart was recalled on July 6...After his recall he posted a slash line of .246/.295/.398 with seven home runs and 18 RBI in 61 games...his strikeout rate was cut to 34.4%...Was placed on the seven-day concussion IL on Aug. 30 after taking a foul tip to his mask against the Padres...was removed on Sept. 6.

2021

Spent a majority of the season at Triple-A Sacramento but did see action in two games for the Giants at the Major League level...Was his first full season at Triple-A after appearing in 33 games for the Giants in 2020 during the pandemic with no minor league season...Batted .314 with 13 doubles, 10 homers, 42 RBI and posted a .915 OPS from the beginning of the Triple-A season through Aug. 6...Went on the injured list Aug. 7 with a quad strain and was activated Aug. 27...Batted .224 with two doubles, four RBI and a .551 OPS over his final 17 games of the season after returning from the IL...Hit .311 with nine of his 10 homers and an .895 OPS versus right-handed pitching with the River Cats...hit .237 with a .619 OPS vs. LHP...Caught 32.6 percent of base stealers (15-of-46), his highest total in the minors since Short-Season Salem-Keizer when he caught 41.6 percent (15-of-36)...Batted .423 (11-for-26) with three extra-base hits and four RBI in 14 Spring Training games with SF.

2020

Began the year at the Alternate Training Site but was called up on Aug. 20 and made his Major League debut starting at catcher...Batted .233 (24-for-103) with 15 runs scored, five doubles, two triples and seven RBI in 33 games...Started 28 games, 27 at catcher and one as the DH... opponents were 19-for-23 in stolen base attempts off him...Struck out 41 times while drawing just three walks...Became the 12th member of the 2018 MLB draft class to make his big league debut, joining Nico Hoerner, Codi Heuer, Alec Bohm, Brady Singer, Nick Madrigal, Joey Gerber, Kris Bubic, Tarik Skubal, Alex Vesia, Casey Mize and Drew Rasmussen...Entered the 2020 season as the Giants top prospect according to MLB Pipeline and their second-best prospect according to Baseball America...His first three career hits were doubles...became the third Giants player since at least 1901 with an extra-base hit in each of his first three career games...the others: 2008 John Bowker & 1940 Buster Maynard... the last Giant whose first three MLB hits were doubles was Glenn Redmon (September 1974).