Coco Gauff’s brother is blazing his own path to glory as MLB Draft nears

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.”

Codey, an athletic switch-hitter with a strong throwing arm, is committed to the University of Missouri. His attendance at the combine leaves open the possibility that Gauff will forgo college if taken at a good spot in the draft and turn pro this summer. 

“I want to play in the big leagues, whichever route that takes me,” he said. 

He’s largely played travel and academy baseball, rather than having the traditional high school baseball experience. He posted a near .500 on-base percentage for the ESB Academy this season, and was named their league’s MVP.

“I get it, but I don’t want him to be known as Coco Gauff’s brother,” said Missouri head coach Kerrick Jackson. “I want him to be known as Codey Gauff, the catcher that is coming to Missouri as a freshman. … It’s something that he’s dealt with his entire life.”

Jackson, who first recruited Codey at a showcase two years ago, said he’s never brought up Codey’s sister with him. He knows the immense respect Codey has for her, admires that, and said he’s planning to ask his new catcher how he deals with balancing it all when Codey arrives on campus later this fall.

While Coco may be the more well-known of the siblings right now, Coco has openly discussed how she has leaned on Codey for support over the years. When Coco was on the verge of her first Grand Slam championship at the 2023 U.S. Open, one match away from finishing off her lifelong dream, her brother was there to give her a mental reset.

She was feeling the pressure of needing just two more sets, one more match. The thought of it being so close was working against her.

“He told me, ‘Pretend that you have to win three sets instead of two. If you put your mindset into the extra mile, then it seems easier, I guess, in a way,’” Coco said at the 2024 Australian Open.

“‘If you want to win the Grand Slam, say you have to win eight matches instead of seven. It’s like changing your mindset so it feels further.’”

She’s given advice to him, as well, about not putting his opponents on a pedestal, and reminding him of how important it is for a catcher to take on a leadership role. The support has gone both ways, and when Codey announced his commitment to Mizzou, Coco called him “My GOAT, my inspiration, my reason, my best friend,” on Instagram.

Codey watches every one of his sister’s matches, no matter what time of day they take place. He was surely watching as Coco was nearly upset at Wimbledon in the second round on Wednesday. She needed to come back from a break down late in the third set, and then again from a deep hole in the final set tiebreak.

It was in 2019 that the then-15-year-old phenom came out of nowhere to win six matches at Wimbledon. Three in qualifying, three more in the main draw, including her breakout victory over her idol, Venus Williams.

“She upset the world there,” Codey said, smiling as he reflected on the run.

Now, all these years later, the siblings that were there supporting her are growing up, and making a name for themselves. Their parents — Corey and Candi — are pulled every which way, with their father in Phoenix last week with Codey, and mother with their younger brother, Cameron. Coco, at least for a little bit, was on her own in England.

Codey hopes he is next to bring glory to the family name. But, he said, neither he, nor his sister, will ultimately be the most successful athlete in the family.

“I think my brother will be the best athlete out of all of us,” Codey said of the 13-year-old Cameron, who plays football.

“He has no other choice, really.”