Junior is moving on.

One of baseball’s greatest sluggers switched leagues just before the trade deadline Thursday to play a prominent role for a playoff contender.

Ken Griffey Jr. agreed to a trade, leaving his hometown Cincinnati Reds at age 38 to get back in a pennant race with the Chicago White Sox.

“I just think there’s a lot of added things he can bring,” Chicago’s Nick Swisher said. “I mean, I had posters of that guy on my wall growing up. So I think it’s going to be an awesome thing for all of us.”

Despite all kinds of names being thrown around, only a handful of deals were completed in the days leading up to the deadline. But the ones that did get done featured several big stars.

Mark Teixeira went from Atlanta to the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday. The New York Yankees acquired Ivan Rodriguez and Xavier Nady within the past week. And a pair of top pitchers were traded in early July, with CC Sabathia going to Milwaukee and Rich Harden to the Chicago Cubs.

The only other deals announced Thursday drew little attention. Florida acquired left-handed reliever Arthur Rhodes from Seattle for Double-A pitcher Gaby Hernandez, and the Yankees sent slick-fielding shortstop Alberto Gonzalez to Washington for pitcher Jhonny Nunez in a swap of minor leaguers.

Teams can still make trades but the players involved must pass through waivers first, which limits availability.

Griffey could have blocked his trade, but both was happy to find a new home.

Griffey hit his 600th home run this season.

The last-place Pirates gave up Bay and received promising young players: reliever Craig Hansen and outfielder Brandon Moss from Boston and third baseman Andy LaRoche and pitcher Bryan Morris from the Dodgers.

It’s a good deal for Pittsburgh. They got four good players.

A two-time All-Star, the 29-year-old Bay was hitting .282 with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs for Pittsburgh. Tampa Bay pursued Bay before he wound up with the Red Sox, who trail the first-place Rays by three games in the AL East.

The Reds sent Griffey and cash to Chicago for reliever Nick Masset and Triple-A second baseman Danny Richar. The deal was announced a half-hour before Thursday’s deadline.

Griffey, who hit his 600th home run this season, agreed to the trade earlier in the day. Because of the cash transaction involved, the deal did not become official until the commissioner’s office approved it.

White Sox general manager Kenny Williams coveted Griffey for several years. Once one of baseball’s premier players, Griffey has never reached the World Series and has not even been in the playoffs since 1997 with Seattle.

“One of the things that factored into this was a guy who has had a great career but has not won a championship and how motivated he’s going to be to get on that stage,” Williams said. “That is a factor and will always be a factor for me.”

Now older, it’s uncertain how much Griffey has left in his oft-injured body – it’s been a long while since he was voted to the All-Century team.

Griffey played right field the last two seasons, but will return to center when he joins the White Sox on Friday for the start of a series in Kansas City.

Manager Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox led Minnesota by 11/2 games when the trade was made.

“When I talked to Junior, he was very honest,” Williams said. “He said, ‘Well, I’ve got to tell you, I don’t know that you’re going to see the guy from Seattle.’ I said, ‘We’re not looking for that guy from Seattle. What we’re looking for is for you to use your instincts.”‘

Griffey takes over for Swisher, who moves to first base in place of the slumping Paul Konerko. Swisher also will give up his No. 30 to Griffey, who wore it during his earliest years in Cincinnati.

Greg Maddux, Adam Dunn, Raul Ibanez, Jarrod Washburn, Brian Fuentes, Huston Street, Jeremy Hermida, Mike Jacobs and Bengie Molina were among the players who stayed put after there was speculation they could be moved before the deadline.

Maddux remained with San Diego after talks with the Dodgers fell through.

“I would say nothing ever got real close,” Padres general manager Kevin Towers said. “We let it be known with the Dodgers, that was the one ballclub he had interest in going to, that any deal we were going to do was going to be the best baseball deal we could do and it wasn’t going to be a financial deal to try to move dollars. We just weren’t happy with the prospect we would be getting back, and we chose to hold onto him.”