The Seattle Mariners will honor a franchise legend in 2025. Ichiro Suzuki was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday in a near-unanimous vote. Seattle announced later in the day that they would make 2025 a banner year for their franchise legend. The Mariners will retire Ichiro's number 51 during the season.
Ichiro joins fellow Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr and Edgar Martinez as the only retired numbers in Mariners history. Jackie Robinson's number 42 is retired in Seattle, as it is across the league. The right fielder spent 14 seasons over two stints with the team and is the franchise leader in batting average, hits, triples, and at-bats.
There was no doubt that the Mariners legend would secure the votes to make the Hall of Fame. His career lasted over two decades between the US and Japan and includes over 4,000 hits. Mariners fans will get their chance to shower him with cheers on August 9 before a game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Mariners have a very short retired numbers list that features only Hall of Famers. So a few weeks after joining Martinez and Griffey in Cooperstown, he will join them in Seattle's rafters. Randy Johnson played for the Mariners but is wearing a Diamondbacks cap in the Hall of Fame. Adrian Beltre is in as a Ranger, Rickey Henderson as an Athletic, Goose Gossage as a Yankee, and Gaylord Perry as a Giant.
So the Mariners have set a clear precedent for getting your number retired. You must go into the Hall of Fame with a Seattle cap. Felix Hernandez was on the ballot for the first time in 2025 and would go in with a Mariners cap but received only 20.6% of the vote.