Mariners will retire Ichiro’s No. 51 again for a different player

The Seattle Mariners have already announced their plans to retire No. 51 in honor of Ichiro Suzuki. Now, they plan to do it again for a different player.

The Mariners announced Monday that they will honor No. 51 a second time in honor of Randy Johnson. Johnson wore the number while pitching for the team between 1993-98. A ceremony will take place at some point during the 2026 season.

Mariners chairman John Stanton called Johnson “one of the most important figures in our organization’s history,” and pointed out the importance of Johnson’s 1995 AL Cy Young campaign in helping keep baseball in the city of Seattle.

It is highly unusual for any organization to retire the same number twice for two different players, though not unprecedented. The New York Yankees retired No. 42 in honor of Mariano Rivera, even though the number had already been retired league-wide in honor of Jackie Robinson. That still is not quite the same thing as this.

Usually, things never get to this point because the number simply would not be reissued, even if it is not officially retired. Despite that, Ichiro was given No. 51 upon his debut in 2001, while Johnson was still an active player with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Mariners have yet to officially retire the number for Ichiro, as that ceremony is scheduled for Aug. 9. The organization seemingly opted to wait until he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, even though he has been retired since 2019 and was inducted into the team’s official Hall of Fame in 2022.