The Family Business

Major League bloodlines in both dugouts in Toronto

There will be an at-bat, appropriately enough, in Toronto this week — maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow — that revises baseball trivia. Against a team that last night featured three sons of former Major Leaguers in its lineup, Dusty Baker’s starting nine will include the last name KESSINGER.

Yesterday, the Astros selected the contract of Grae Kessinger, their second-round selection in the 2019 Draft.

His uncle, Keith, was taken late in the 1989 Draft by the Orioles and ultimately appeared in 11 games for the Reds in 1993. The patriarch of the family, Don — Keith’s father and Grae’s grandfather — was a six-time All-Star for the Cubs. Don stabilized the shortstop position for Chicago after Ernie Banks had moved across the diamond to first base. He won the Gold Glove in 1969 and 1970.

(Grae’s father, Kevin, was selected in the 1992 Draft by the Cubs and had a brief minor league career.)

When 25-year-old Grae appears in his first big league game, the Kessingers will join five other families — the Bells, the Boones, the Colemans, the Hairstons, and the Schofield/Werth family — as three-generation baseball royalty.

Grae and Jayson Werth will find themselves in similar company. Werth’s grandfather was big leaguer Dick Schofield. Werth’s uncle, also named Dick Schofield, had a long career as a defensively gifted shortstop. It’s three generations with a slight variation.

Grae was drafted as a shortstop, the primary position of both his uncle and grandfather, but he’s expected to see time for Houston at third base — when Alex Bergman needs a day off.

I have spent some time researching what role genetics plays in baseball ever since last year’s draft when two sons of outstanding Major League players were taken with the top two picks. Bloodlines that extend three generations should be celebrated, but are these cases simply fun anomalies? And is the access that, say, the son of a player receives as important as DNA? (I don’t know, but I’m working on it.)

For all the advancements that have been made in pitching labs across the country over the past several years, I continue to wonder about nature vs. nurture. For every Bo Bichette, there are hundreds of Dante Bichette Jrs.

This year’s draft figures to be less rooted in genetics. There is one projected top-20 pick with big-league bloodlines, though; Jacob Wilson, whose father Jack made his mark for the Pirates at shortstop in the early 2000s, has impressed scouts during his time at Grand Canyon University with his defense.

It’s a family tradition.

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