Billy Germaine

William Germaine

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 214 lb.

• School Southern Arkansas University, Hill College

• Born October 28, 1994 in Aldergrove, BC CAN

BR register page

Biographical Information

Billy Germaine has played in the independent leagues and in Germany and for the German national team.

As a youth, he was on a traveling team with Tyler O'Neill. He hit .297 as a junior college freshman and .308 as a sophomore with 33 RBI in 39 games. Transferring to Southern Arkansas, he batted .338/.420/.783 with 66 RBI in 56 games as a junior and .302/.436/.838 with 18 HR, 50 runs and 48 RBI in 50 games as a senior. He was second in the Great American Conference in homers.

The Canadian signed with the Southern Illinois Miners and hit .298/.379/.351 in 20 games then remained as a bullpen catcher after being released. His brother Joe Germaine was playing in Germany and advised Billy to try it out. He signed with the minor league Lauf Wolfe club and batted .567/.680/1.056; the team had a chance to move up to the Bundesliga-1, Germany's top league, but turned it down. Billy decided he was moving up to that level, though, and signed as a player-coach with the Ulm Falcons. He produced at a .347/.449/.543 clip, finishing among the Bundesliga-1 leaders in homers (7, tied for 8th), steals (15, tied Phildrick Llewellyn for second, one behind Nateshon Thomas).

He next moved to the Stuttgart Reds. The 2020 season was shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic; he hit .488/.627/1.116 with 8 homers in 59 at-bats. He led the southern Bundesliga-1 in runs (23, 3 ahead of Matt Vance), tied Danilo Weber for 4th in hits (21), led in dingers (one ahead of Pascal Amon and Max Boldt), was second in total bases (48, 7 behind Vance), was 9th with 15 RBI, placed second with 15 walks (two behind Sascha Lutz), was third in average (after Vance and Weber), led in OBP (.007 ahead of Lutz), led in slugging (.134 ahead of Vance), led in OPS (145 ahead of Vance). He fielded .981 but only threw out 2 of 30 who tried to steal.

In '21, he remained one of Germany's top hitters at .433/.585/1.021 with 16 homers in 28 games. He was second in the southern Bundesliga-1 with 48 runs (four behind Shawn Larry), tied Andrija Tomić for 5th in hits (42), tied Boldt for second in home runs (5 behind Larry), third in total bases (99, behind Larry and Boldt), tied Boldt for second in extra-base hits (24, 5 behind Larry), 3rd with 45 RBI (behind Larry and Boldt), tied Philip Schulz for the most walks (34), was 4th in average (between fellow Canadian Will Thorp and Juan Martin), was third in OBP (after Larry and Thorp), was second in slugging (.339 behind Larry) and was second in OPS (431 behind Larry). He fielded .975, splitting time between the outfield and catcher.

Germaine moved to short for the 2022 Tübingen Hawks and also was their hitting coach. He batted .322/.483/.678 and fielded .895. He was among the Bundesliga-1 south leaders in homers (10, 3rd, behind Austin Gallagher and Boldt), total bases (61, between Gallagher and Larry), walks (21, between Terrell Joyce and Schultz), hit-by-pitch (6, tied for 4th with Boldt and Devon Ramirez), intentional walks (11, 1st by 7), OBP (8th among those with 50+ PA), slugging (6th among those with 50+ PA, between Larry and Thomas) and OPS (7th among those with 50+ PA). He also got engaged to a German lady, a softball player.

He then suited up for Germany in the 2022 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, starting at third base for the hosts of the Regensburg pool. Hitting cleanup, he drew a walk from former major leaguer Akeel Morris his first time up. He had three hits versus South Africa, including a homer off Kevin Townend. In the first inning against Czechia, he hit a three-run shot off Daniel Padyšák in the first inning but the Czechs outscored Germany 8-1 the rest of the way to eliminate Germany. He hit .417/.462/1.000 with three runs and four RBI in three games. He tied for 10th in the event in hits, tied for second in homers (one behind top Mariners prospect Harry Ford), tied for 9th in RBI (with Marek Chlup, D'Shawn Knowles, Martin Mužík and Justin Wylie), was 6th in average for those with 10+ AB (between Ford and Noelvi Marte), was 10th in OBP (between Jaden Rudd and Oscar Angulo), 2nd in slugging (.364 behind Ford) and 2nd in OPS (490 behind Ford).

For the 2023 season, he hit .333/.490/.628 with 28 RBI and 7 homers in 24 games for the champion Heidenheim Heideköpfe, though he slipped to .217/.400/.457 (12 RBI in 13 G) in the playoffs. He tied Chris Beyers for 3rd in dingers, tied Joyce for the RBI lead, was 5th with 31 walks, tied Daniel Patrice for 8th in HBP (8), was 8th in runs (23, between Darrion Richards and Vincent Ahrens), ranked 5th in slugging (between Larry and Moritz van Bergen), tied Gary Owens for 8th in OBP and was 6th in OPS (between John Hanley and van Bergen). The next year, he was at .333/.411/.686 in the regular season and .344/.364/.406 in the postseason. He was 8th in average (between Larry and Elias von Garßen), tied Drew Janssen for the homer lead (10), led in RBI (43, 3 ahead of Larry), was 4th with 51 hits (between Eric Brenk and Shotaro Usui), trailed only Alex Schmidt in doubles (13 to 12), tied Nino Sacasa for 9th in runs (32), 3rd in slugging (after Austin Bull and Larry) and 5th in OPS (between Schmidt and Quin Cotton). In the 2024 European Champions Cup, he hit .250/.286/.550 with 2 homers and 8 RBI in 5 games, going deep off Emmanuel Herrera and Tomáš Urbánek. He was 8th in slugging, tied Larry for the RBI lead and was one homer behind co-leaders Alex Monsalve and Martin Červinka.

The British Columbia native was MVP of the 2025 European Champions Cup, leading Heidenheim to victory. He slashed .400/.500/1.050 with 4 home runs, 7 runs and 10 RBI in 5 contests, homering in all but one of them. He took Markus Solbach deep in the title game win. He was second to Marek Krejčiřík in slugging, tied Kamil Pejchal and Martin Kalábek for 6th in OBP, trailed only Phildrick Llewellyn in runs, tied Kruno Gojković and Ryan Johnson for 3rd in hits, tied Maurice Montgomery for the RBI lead, led in homers (one ahead of Montgomery) and tied for 3rd in walks (3). In the regular season in Germany, he batted .413/.515/.894 with 38 runs, 12 HR and 48 RBI in 30 games; he was then at .276/.400/.655 with 8 runs in 8 playoff games as they made it 6 straight titles. For the season, he made leaderboards for average (4th, between Usui and Tobias Maul), easily led in home runs (6 ahead of Maul and Simon Bäumer), was second in RBI (six behind Bäumer), was second to Bäumer in hits, led in doubles, tied Schmidt for the run lead, led in slugging (.034 ahead of Elias Huber), was 7th in OBP (between Maik Ehmcke and Ramirez) and tied Simon Gühring for 3rd in putouts (184). He was named Bundesliga MVP for his second MVP award of the year. He got 30.5% of the vote, edging out Logan Hofmann (21.2), Bäumer (20.7) and Huber (18.9).