Yankees Free Agent Keep Or Dump: Ichiro Suzuki

I’ll begin a new series here at Yanks Go Yard as I go through and evaluate each of the potential free agents on the roster and see whether or not there’s a case to be made to dump this player or keep this player. We’ll begin with one of the more controversial free agents the Yankees have in Ichiro Suzuki.

Why is he controversial? Well, first of all he’s 156 hits short of 3,000 in his MLB career and his 4,122 hits combined between MLB and the NPB. He also turns 41 years of age on October 22.

On the plus side, Ichiro had a better batting average and slugging percentage this year than he did in 2013.

However, in 143 games he drove in only 22 runs and only had 16 extra base hits. The lack of punch that he had was infuriating to watch in a lineup that lacked punch all season long.

Ichiro is the perfect fourth outfielder now. He’s still effective defensively. He can still make contact, even if he’s a singles hitter for the most part and he still has some speed.

However, it’s more than that with the Yankees.

Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran aren’t exactly the picture of health. There’s also age concerns with Beltran, meaning the fourth outfielder on the Yankees may play a little more than on a typical team. The Yankees could use Martin Prado as that guy and play Jose Pirela or possibly another player at second base when Prado plays the outfield.

Ichiro still has skills and should be with a major league team next year. However, due to his lack of pop in the bat and his age it shouldn’t be with the Yankees.

Final Verdict: DUMP