This article tells the story of Ichiro Suzuki's trade to the New York Yankees in 2012. It details Brian Cashman's conversation with Ichiro about accepting a part-time role and the surprising revelation that Ichiro understood English perfectly.
Jimmy Hascup | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com A 10-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, Suzuki made his MLB debut at 27 after a stellar career in Japan, his native country. He was one vote shy of being a unanimous choice, it seems like everyone around baseball had a memory to share this week about the player who went by his first name, Ichiro.
Among those telling stories was Brian Cashman, Yankees general manager, who I talked to yesterday, told me a story when the Yankees traded for Ichiro in 2012. As you know, there were stories about Ichiro in his last years with the Mariners that he was difficult. The Yankees had some questions about whether or not he would accept a part-time role. And so Brian was driving from one part of Florida to another, and he pulled off on the side of the road because he wanted to make it absolutely clear. And he told Ichiro like, ‘Look, if you are not willing to agree to these conditions, then I don’t want you to accept the trade here,' because he had a full no-trade clause, so he walked through it. ‘If we pinch hit for you, are you going to be okay with that? If we don’t start you, are you going to be okay with that?' And the whole process took an hour and a half because they were using a translator. So the Yankees finished the trade. Ichiro agreed to all the terms, and Brian meets him in the clubhouse the next day and walks up to him, and you know looks for the translator and starts to talk to Ichiro. And Ichiro answers in perfect English right back. And Brian’s like, ‘What? What are we doing? We went through this whole thing yesterday. And you understood everything.’ In July 2012, the Yankees sent non-prospect minor league pitchers D.J Mitchell and Danny Farquhar to the Mariners for Suzuki, who was in the last year of a five-year, $90 million contract. The Yankees were only on the hook for $2.5 million in that final year.As Olney alluded to in his story, Cashman did not expect Suzuki to be a fixture in the lineup. In his first season in the Bronx, he batted .322 in 240 plate appearances in the regular season and then got key at-bats during the playoffs. He hit a combined .271 in 293 regular-season games in 2013-14, and he ended up playing five more seasons after that — three with the Miami Marlins and two with the Seattle Mariners, where he played 14 seasons of his illustrious career.Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription. If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with ou
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