The Mariners honored Ken Griffey Jr. by wasting a draft pick on his football-playing son

The MLB Draft is a convoluted meandering process that gets utterly silly in the late rounds. When it came to the 24th round the Seattle Mariners decided they didn’t need a player as much as they wanted to give a shout out to Ken Griffey Jr, so they drafted his son.

Your first reaction might be to think this is harsh. That we’re reducing Trey Griffey to nothing more than a nod to his dad — but it’s absolutely the case. Trey Griffey doesn’t want to play baseball, he has no desire to play baseball, he hasn’t played baseball since he was 11 years old.

“At first, all I wanted to do was play baseball,” Trey says. “But as I got older, my dad told me, ‘You have to choose the sport you want to play.’ I said I want to play football. Once I turned 11, I was done with baseball.”

Think it’s a coincidence the Mariners picked him in the 24th round? Hmmm ... what was his dad’s number?

Griffey Jr. will be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame this year, so it’s nice of the Mariners to honor their best player — even if it means wasting a draft pick. Trey Griffey is officially listed as a center fielder on the MLB Draft tracker, which happens to be his dad’s position.

Trey’s passion is football. He’s a wide receiver at Arizona, and while he doesn’t get a ton of playing time he did make one heck of a catch back in 2013 when he played in the Advocare V100 Bowl.

Be sure to subscribe to SB Nation’s YouTube channel for highlight videos, features, analysis and more