Ken Griffey Jr Net Worth (2024)
Lifestyle | Bio | Facts [UPDATED]

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The professional baseball player George Kenneth Griffey Jr has lived and breathed baseball all his life, being the son of Ken Griffey Sr, also a professional baseball player who played for the Cincinnati Reds when Ken was small.

In June 1987, Griffey Jr became the overall number one in the selection by the Seattle Mariners during the amateur draft for the Major League Baseball. 

Because of this…

…the future ace received $160,000 as a signing bonus. He was just 18 years old then. 

That same year, after joining the Bellingham Mariners of the Northwest League, Ken finally made his professional debut that same month. 

Ken debuted with flying colors. 

Showing great promise, the young professional baseball player led his team with 14 home runs, 13 steals, 40 RBI, and .313 hits. 

Stealing the spotlight, he was named by Baseball America magazine as the number one prospect of the league. 

In 1998, the baseball player joined the ranks in the San Bernardo Spirit of Class A Advanced California League. 

During this time, Ken had .338 hit, 32 steals, 11 home runs, and drove 42 runs all within 58 games. 

This resulted in Ken’s promotion to Vermont Mariners of the Class AA Eastern League, achieving .279 hits, 2 home runs, and 10 RBIs. 

The late 1980s to 1990s was an exciting time for Ken Griffey Jr. 

During this period, Griffey was able to establish his authority on the baseball field. 

With a total of 1,752 hits, 167 stolen bases, 1,152 RBIs, and 398 home runs, the “kid” led the American League for 4 seasons in the home run from 1994 to 1999. 

What’s more…

…Ken was also voted the American League MVP in 1997, maintaining a career batting average of .297. 

Throughout the decade, Ken’s defense in the field was looked on as the elite fielding standard, epitomized by his stunning winning streak of 10 Gold Gloves from 1990 to 1999. 

Aside from this, his diving plays became somewhat of an iconic move, thanks to his impressive range, as well as his signature basket catches over the shoulder. 

He’s also known for amazingly robbing his opponents of home runs by leaping up and then pulling them back up into the field. 

Around this time…

…Griffey Jr was fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in baseball. He’s also starting to establish his legendary icon image. 

As a matter of fact, he was also able to snag a lucrative partnership with the brands like Nike and Wheaties. 

If we have Michael Jordan’s jumping man logo for Nike, Ken had his “Swingman logo.”

Thanks to his signature sweet swing, this logo graced Nike’s apparel and shoes just like how Jordan’s Jumping Man does today. 

Aside from his iconic moves…

…Griffey also popularized wearing the baseball cap backward. 

Not much from aesthetic reasons, he said that he wore it that way because he used to wear his father’s baseball cap when he was young and his father had such a big mass of hair that his big baseball cap used to fall over Ken Jr’s eyes, so he wore it backward instead.

Cute!

What’s cooler…

…was when Griffey appeared in The Simpsons, which is another sign that a person actually made it as a pop culture icon!

He appeared in The Simpsons in the year 1992 along with fellow baseball stars Ozzie Smith and Wade Boggs. 

In 1993…

…Ken Griffey had his very first-ever Major League Baseball plate appearance at the Oakland Coliseum where he was able to hit a line-drive double off of Dave Stewart, the Oakland Athletics pitcher. 

And after one week, Ken was able to hit his first major league home run in his first at-bat at the Kingdome. 

But the best was yet to come. 

In the years 1990 and 1991, Ken Griffey – Jr and Sr – became the first-ever father and son to play at the same time in the same team.

This happened in Ken Griffey Sr’s game on August 31, 1990, as a Mariner. 

The two were able to hit back-to-back singles in the first inning and scored, both of them!

But then didn’t stop there as on September 14th, they hit back-to-back home runs again in the top of the first off Kirth McCaskill, the California Angels pitcher. 

This made them the first father and son duo to achieve back-to-back home runs. 

Jr and Sr were able to play a total of 51 games together before papa Griffey retired in June 1991. 

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In 1993, Ken made yet another record by hitting the warehouse past the right-field wall on the fly in the MLB Home Run Derby.

What does this mean?

Well, with every home run that hits as far as Eutaw Street, the feats are commemorated with a plaque that’s horizontally embedded in the concourse’s walkway, exactly where the home run landed. 

1994 and 1995 became some of Ken Griffey’s most memorable years. 

That year, Ken led the league in the All-Star game selection voting. The season saw him achieve 30 home runs in the first 65 games of the Mariners. 

He went on to achieve 4 multi-home run games that year. But the season ended prematurely because of labor disputes. 

The next year, they were up against the New York Yankees in the 1995 American League Division Series.

The Mariners lost 2 games already and were about to be eliminated but were able to achieve a comeback by winning the next two games, setting up a decisive 5th game. 

Here’s the kicker. 

Griffey was on the first base at the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 5. His teammate Edgar Martinez was able to hit a double. 

Ken then raced around the bases before sliding home with his winning run and straight into the waiting arms of his entire team. 

Just the perfect elements of a champion moment. 

This also kicked off the iconic rivalry of the Mariners and the Yankees.

And iconic as he was, Ken Griffey fueled the fire by saying that he’d never play for the Yankees because they allegedly treated his father badly. 

He was also kicked out of the Yankee clubhouse by Billy Martin, the Yankee manager, believing that children didn’t belong there.

Ooof. 

The Mariners later lost to the Cleveland Indians but it still became one of the most memorable moments in Mariners and baseball history, polishing the season that “saved baseball in Seattle.”

Come 1997, Ken Griffey led his team to the American League West crown and snagged the American League Most Valuable Player Award with .304 hit, 56 home runs, and 147 RBIs. 

In 1999, Griffey ranked 93rd  among the 100 Greatest Baseball Players by The Sporting News. Being only 29 years old (going 30), Ken was the youngest baseball player on the list. 

While with Seattle…

…Ken became a 10-time American League Gold Glove Award winner, All-Star Game MVP in 1992, AL MVP in 1997, ESPY co-winner for Male Athlete of the year1998, Players Choice Awards Player of the Decade1999, and was named to the All-Century team in the year 1999. 

Epic!

Between the years 2001 and 2004, Ken was plagued with a series of injuries that contributed to his unpopular career. 

In June 2007, Griffey Jr made his return to Seattle. 

Before the game started, the Mariners honored him with a 15-minute long presentation  showing the highlights of his career with the Mariners. 

They called it the presentation of “the house that Griffey Built” with a 4-minute standing ovation from the crowd including Hall of Famers. 

Following the series of Cincinnati Reds versus Seattle Mariners, a fan-made petition emerged urging the Mariners management to bring Ken Griffey back. It was able to collect over 1,900 signatures.

In 2008, Ken was traded to the Chicago White Sox, ending his tenure of 9 years in Cincinnati. 

Ken Retired in 2010 after a complication with the Mariners. He said that he did it so as not to distract the team for the next game. 

The next year, he was hired as a special consultant for the Mariners. 

In the duration of his baseball career…

…Ken Griffey was able to earn over $150 million in salary. 

Ken’s largest contract was with the Cincinnati Reds in 2000. It’s worth $116.5 million. 

The deal deferred half the amount for a future date which made Ken earn as much as $3.5 million per year until 2025 even if he’s now retired. 

Whoa.