SEATTLE -- Kyle Lewis is missing a lot of things in what would have been the first month of his first full season in the Major Leagues. A chance to play every day for the Mariners. The opportunity to begin proving himself on the big league stage. And this week the gift of being able to wear the No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day.

All that is on hold for now, due to the coronavirus pandemic that has shuttered baseball along with much of the rest of the world. But that doesn’t stop the 24-year-old Lewis from reflecting on the importance of Robinson and the experience of being part of a Mariners club that has the most African-American players in the Majors this year with 10 black players on its 40-man roster and nine that would likely have made the 26-man Opening Day roster.

“That was a big one for me, getting to put that 42 on,” said Lewis, a 2016 first-round Draft choice who sits atop the Mariners' depth chart in right field. “I thought that was going to be a great day. But it still will be. I’m pretty sure I’ll have Jackie Robinson Days in my future. I’m confident in that, but I really wanted to represent, especially for the Mariners, being that we have a good representation on our team.”

• Complete guide to 2020 Jackie Robinson Day

Lewis takes pride in being part of Seattle's roster, where seven of the 10 African-American players are 26 or younger and four are rookie prospects like himself, just coming into the league.

“I’ve never tried to make it a black race kind of thing,” Lewis said. “But I do think representation is important and equal opportunity is important. So it’s cool to see. When you’re able to share experiences together, it makes it satisfying to be around that. I just try to really be appreciative of these opportunities when they do come.”

General manager Jerry Dipoto says the large number of black players on his roster is a coincidence, though one he sees as a large positive for the Mariners and MLB as the league tries to rebuild an African-American presence.

“There are more young African-American players in the game now [than in recent years],” Dipoto said. “I think it’s refreshing. It was always like that when we were growing up and perhaps this is a trend we can maintain in baseball because I know it’s been something of a focus point from a league level for quite some time.”

Lewis and reliever Art Warren were drafted by the Mariners. The ever-active Dipoto has acquired six other African-American players via trades -- starting pitchers Justus Sheffield and Justin Dunn, infielders Dee Gordon, J.P. Crawford and Shed Long Jr., and outfielder Mallex Smith -- and he signed pitchers Carl Edwards Jr. and Taijuan Walker as free agents last winter.

Mariners broadcaster Dave Sims, a 67-year-old Philadelphia native, remembers poring over World Series programs that his dad had purchased after taking the train to New York to see Robinson play in the 1947 and '49 World Series for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Sims often wears a "42" cap in Robinson’s honor and has relished the sight of so many fellow African-Americans in the Mariners clubhouse since last season, when 10 black players were on Seattle’s big league roster for the final month after September callups brought some of the young group aboard.

Sims hosted a forum with those 10 players last September during a Mariners African-American Heritage Month celebration. Two from that group -- outfielder Keon Broxton and pitcher Reggie McClain -- were released in the offseason, but Walker and Edwards were added in free agency.

“For me, it’s like, ‘Are you kidding me?’" said Sims. “I walk in and see 10 guys from the same heritage and same culture who look like me. That’s tremendous. I doubt it was done by design. It just happened that way. Deals were made and we wind up with this number of guys. But it’s gratifying. It’s encouraging.”

It’s all possible because Robinson paved the way in 1947, becoming the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues. That was six years before Sims was born and long before the current Mariners players were around. But they know the history and appreciate the chance to honor No. 42 whenever they can.

“He’s always been the forefather, the founding father,” Lewis said. “Any time you play baseball, you know Jackie is the pillar. He’s the example you want to follow. That’s always the gold standard.”

Lewis was in Double-A Arkansas last season on Jackie Robinson Day. Unlike in the Major Leagues, Minor Leaguers aren’t all given a No. 42 jersey to wear that day. So Lewis and Dunn found the one regular No. 42 jersey that belonged to the club and split it up, with Dunn wearing it during pregame warmups and Lewis donning it for the evening’s contest.

“It was a surreal thing,” Lewis said. “Every time you get an opportunity to represent or try to honor things of the past that paved the way and created opportunities for you, especially things that required courage and sacrifice, I never want to lose the humility to that. It’s a symbol of respect and a symbol of humility for things that came before us and hopefully we can continue to become that symbol for things that come after us.”