Mariners Retiring Former Yankees Pitcher’s Number

Legendary former New York Yankees left-handed pitcher Randy Johnson will have his No. 51 retired by the Seattle Mariners next season.

On Monday, the Mariners announced that they will honor Johnson and immortalize his number in a ceremony at T-Mobile Park in 2026. An exact date for those festivities has yet to be finalized.

"From his arrival in Seattle in 1989 and over the next decade, Randy helped define Mariners baseball in our region and across the country,” Mariners President of Business Operations Kevin Martinez said, via MLB.com. “He was as fierce as any player in baseball, and he provided Mariners fans with some of the greatest moments in Seattle sports history."

Johnson, also known as the "Big Unit", made his MLB debut with the Montreal Expos in 1988 and was traded to Seattle in May 1989. He'd spend parts of 10 seasons with the club, logging a 3.42 ERA with 2,162 strikeouts in 274 outings and 1,838 1/3 innings while making five All-Star teams and winning the 1995 Cy Young Award during that stretch.

The Yankees traded for Johnson in January 2005 following a six-season stint with the Arizona Diamondbacks from 1999 to 2004, during which he won World Series MVP after helping the team topple New York over seven games in 2001.

While calling the Bronx home through the 2006 campaign, he pitched to a 4.37 ERA in 67 regular season starts with a 4.01 FIP and 383 strikeouts over 430 2/3 innings.

Johnson was excellent in the playoffs throughout his illustrious career, evidenced by a 3.50 ERA in 121 innings, but that wasn't the case with the Yankees. He was responsible for a 6.14 ERA in 7 1/3 innings against the Los Angeles Angels in the 2005 ALDS, which New York would lose in five games, while recording a 7.94 ERA across 5 2/3 frames in a four-game defeat at the hands of the Detroit Tigers in the 2006 ALDS.

The Yankees dealt Johnson back to Arizona in January 2007, and he'd go on to play for three more years before retiring after the 2009 season.

Regarded as one of the best pitchers the game has ever seen, Johnson was a first-ballot inductee into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. A 10-time All-Star and five-time Cy Young Award winner, his 4,875 strikeouts are the second-most in league history behind Nolan Ryan.

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