PHOENIX — There are many recognizable last names at the annual MLB Draft Combine. Most, however, belong to the brothers, sons or nephews of current or former big-league stars.One look around Chase Field last week, where the combine took place, and you saw Pettitte, Kemp, Sabathia, Thome and Bonds, among others, on the backs of the participants’ grey shirseys.Then there was Codey Gauff — a relative of a different variety. One that surprises people enough to ask him in near perpetuity if he is, in fact, a family member of the 22-year-old tennis phenom, and two-time Grand Slam champion, Coco Gauff.Many of the players asked him. So did the scouts he talked to, and the teams that interviewed him. You can’t talk to or about Codey, without mentioning Coco, who is, in fact, Codey’s older sister.“At the end of the day, I’m myself,” Codey, a catching prospect from Elite Squad Baseball Academy in Delray, Fla., told The Athletic. “I want to keep doing my name for myself. She’s worldwide, so obviously people are going to ask. I’m not ashamed of it or anything. If anything, it’s just, being the next up in the family.”Codey, four years his sister’s junior, has been on this ride, proudly supporting Coco during her late childhood rise, which has only continued into early adulthood — shining an intense spotlight on the Gauff family.Though Codey has a famous last name, he wants to forge his own path in baseball, where he is considered a legit prospect. Receiving an invitation to the combine, where most of the top draft prospects go to meet with and work out for teams, was one of his biggest baseball moments and was serendipitous timing. It came just a week before his sister’s return to the grass courts at Wimbledon, the tournament that turned her into a star seven years ago.“She wants me to go as far as I can,” Codey said. “It’s a blessing to have siblings playing at the next level and striving for the same dreams. A lot of guys don’t have the same opportunity as their siblings. We’re both striving to be something great.”
Coco Gauff’s brother is blazing his own path to glory as MLB Draft nears
Codey Gauff, the younger brother of the tennis star, is a rising catching prospect with a commitment to Missouri and his eyes on pro ball







