Ichiro to transition to new role with Mariners and Nine things Ichiro did better than anyone

The Seattle Mariners announced Thursday that Ichiro Suzuki will transition into a front-office role with the club, effective immediately. Suzuki did not officially retire from playing and his agent left open the possibility that he could appear in the Mariners’ opening series in Japan in 2019, but the news almost undoubtedly signals the end of his long tenure as an MLB fixture.

Suzuki will certainly make the Hall of Fame as soon as he’s eligible, as he spent much of his time in the Majors establishing himself as the best in multiple facets of the game. Here are nine of them:

1. Hitting for contact

(Jack Gruber/USA TODAY Staff)

Of all Ichiro’s prodigious baseball skills, none stands out as emphatically as his ability to hit for contact at the big-league level. Across his NPB and MLB careers, he collected more hits than MLB hit king Pete Rose, and his 3,089 stateside hits rank first among all players since 2000. He led the Majors in hits seven times, and his 262 knocks in 2004 broke an 84-year-old record held by George Sisler.

2. Training

An incredible ESPN.com feature published in March described Ichiro’s rigorous offseason training, but even without those details, his record speaks for itself: Suzuki played in at least 160 games in eight different Major League seasons – all after turning 30. In that category, he represents a massive outlier in an era in which players and teams recognize the value of occasional rest.

3. Playing defense in right field

(Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports)

At his best, Ichiro was an exceptionally rangy outfielder with a great arm. Since 2002, the first year UZR was calculated, his 125.9 mark in that stat is nearly 40 runs better than the next best right fielder, Jason Heyward.

4. Trolling Cleveland

In addition to his exceptional on-field skills, Ichiro always had a knack for interesting and unusual quotes by the buttoned-up standards of Major League Baseball. In 2007, before a trip to Cleveland, he said, “To tell the truth, I’m not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to. If I ever saw myself saying I’m excited going to Cleveland, I’d punch myself in the face, because I’m lying.”

5. Running the bases

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Ichiro was not the most prodigious basestealer of his era, but he stole 509 bases in the Majors and rarely made mental mistakes on the basepaths. By Fangraphs’ baserunning runs, he added 95.6 runs with his legs – the most of any player since 2000, and third best in history behind only Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines.

6. Talking multilingual trash

This is the best: A 2014 Wall Street Journal divulged that Ichiro learned Spanish so he could better talk trash to opposing players from different cultures. That’s just Jordanesque dedication to mentally defeating your adversaries.

7. Looking dope

(AP Photo/Nick Wass)

This man came correct. Few in the game could rock a pair of baseball sunglasses like Ichiro could, and his uniforms always looked exceptionally tailored to his lean physique. His routine at the plate, from his setup to the swing, was as unmistakeable as it was aesthetically thrilling. There’s no way to quantify this, but For The Win feels comfortable declaring Ichiro the coolest looking player of his generation.

8. Adapting to a new league

The Majors have seen an influx of professional players from Japan, Korea and Cuba in recent seasons, but no one to date has made the transition as successfully as Ichiro. Differences in the ball, the schedule, and the amount of travel have thrown lesser players, but Ichiro won both the AL’s Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player award in his first season stateside in 2001.

9. Inspiring awe

(AP Photo/Nick Wass)

In addition to all the amazing stuff we could see Ichiro doing on the field every night, his guarded persona helped develop a mystique around his abilities unmatched in his era. He was known for impressive batting practice power displays and there was always talk that he could hit way more home runs if he wanted. Though a lefty swinger in games, he also warmed up by taking right-handed swings and looked good doing it. At times, it was easy to get the sense that Ichiro could do practically anything he wanted on a baseball field, and that what he wanted to do was collect tons of hits and play spectacular defense and run the bases well. It worked out pretty well for him.

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