The Seattle Mariners found a new way to honor Ken Griffey Jr., selecting the Hall of Famer’s son, Trey Griffey, on the final day of the 2016 Major League Baseball draft.
Per Greg Johns of MLB.com, the Mariners selected Griffey in the 24th round out of the University of Arizona.
Johns also noted the Mariners listed Griffey as a center fielder, while mentioning there was likely a reason he was taken in the 24th round.
Griffey’s father, of course, wore No. 24 with the Mariners from 1989 to 1999 before they traded him to the Cincinnati Reds.
In January, per Johns, the Mariners announced they were going to retire Griffey’s No. 24 in a ceremony at Safeco Field on August 6. The team made that news official 24 hours after the 1997 American League MVP was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame with the highest percentage of votes in history.
This is likely just a tip-of-the-cap selection to the greatest player in Mariners history.
The young Griffey is a football player who quit playing baseball in 2006, as he told Mitch Sherman of ESPN.com in 2012: “Baseball will always be in my genes. I’ll always know a lot about it because of my father and grandfather. But I don’t really have the love for it that I do for football.”
Griffey was able to honor his father on the football field last November, scoring a 95-yard touchdown against Arizona State on Junior’s birthday.
Because the MLB draft is so long—there are 40 rounds with more than 1,200 players selected—teams have the luxury of honoring former players and legends of the sport by drafting their children. It’s also a nice moment for the new generation to have their names called as draftees.
An eventful year for the Griffey family was made a little bit sweeter with the Mariners taking the 22-year-old.
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