As mentioned earlier today on the AB4AR Page, Joel Sherman reported that Ichiro Suzuki enjoyed his time as a Yankee after the trade this season and that Ichiro "strongly wants to stay" with New York next season. Without delving too deeply into this, allow me to make my case against this idea.
Average age of Yankee postseason roster- 33.08 years
Current Age of Ichiro- 39 years
It just doesn't make any sense to make an already old team with a ton of money tied up in its oldest players any older. Ichiro did exactly what the Yankees wanted him to do and exactly what a lot of people thought he would do after the Yankees traded for him. But that still doesn't change the fact that he has deteriorated significantly as a player himself in the past 2 seasons, and the odds of him replicating what he did in his short time with the Yankees over a full season next year are incredibly low. Let him be what he was and go out on a positive as a Yankee and focus efforts on finding a younger, more versatile outfield solution.
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