Joel Sherman of the New York Post spoke to an unnamed “person close to” Ichiro Suzuki who says the impending free agent “strongly wants to stay with the Yankees.”
According to Sherman’s source Suzuki “enjoyed playing in a professional, winning atmosphere with so many contemporaries near his age range” and a one-year contract “in the $5 million-to-$8 million range might get it done.”
Nick Swisher is also a free agent, so the Yankees could let him walk and re-sign Suzuki to take over as the full-time right fielder. That would create an excellent defensive outfield with Suzuki and Brett Gardner flanking center fielder Curtis Granderson, but devoting both corner outfield spots to hitters with minimal power isn’t exactly the Yankees’ usual way.
Suzuki struggled in his final one-and-a-half seasons for the Mariners, hitting just .268 with a .643 OPS in 256 games, but then hit .322 with a .794 OPS in 67 games for the Yankees to basically duplicate his career numbers at age 38.
