SEATTLE – Ichiro Suzuki was moved by the love from the fans, the potential of his team and the $90 million on the dotted line.
Those were the basic elements that convinced the Seattle Mariners’ superstar to shun free agency after this season and agree to a five-year contract extension.
The Mariners and Suzuki announced Friday that he will remain under contract with the club through 2012 with a deal that places him among the elite major league money-earners.
At an average annual salary of $18 million, he would be tied for fifth among players on this year’s salary list. He stands alone in that group, however, in that he’s not a power hitter or ace starting pitcher.
The Mariners believe Suzuki’s impact on the field is as important as a consistent power hitter or ace starter.
“This is the kind of player you build your club around,” general manager Bill Bavasi said. “To know that he’s going to be here is an important piece to our overall project, which is to have a great club for a long time.”
With 18 days remaining before baseball’s trade deadline, Friday’s announcement was accompanied by a huge sense of relief around the organization. The Mariners, who’d been negotiating with Suzuki since January, didn’t want his contract situation to become a distraction in their late-season attempt to win the American League West Division.
“From my perspective, it’s a big relief because we can go play baseball,” Seattle manager John McLaren said. “When we get to September, we don’t have to worry about where he might be going. It’s a done deal and we’re really happy about it.”
The announcement also came 12 days after former manager Mike Hargrove abruptly resigned, fueling speculation that his departure helped negotiations with Suzuki progress. Those two had differences two years ago when Hargrove became the Mariners’ manager.
The Mariners and Suzuki denied any connection with Hargrove’s departure or the naming of McLaren, who has been close with Suzuki since Suzuki came to the Mariners from Japan in 2001.
“It’s up to everybody else to think what they want to, but that was not an influence at all,” Suzuki said of the Hargrove situation.
Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln, without citing specifics, said contract talks already had taken an upswing before Hargrove resigned.
“I was confident we were going to put this together probably three or four weeks ago,” Lincoln said.
The Mariners didn’t always feel so good about getting a deal.
“There was a time when we hit an ebb and I had some concerns,” team president Chuck Armstrong said. “When things didn’t happen in spring training, we pretty much agreed that we would put things on hiatus until the latter part of May. Ichiro told us he just wanted to focus on the season and he didn’t want this to be a distraction for him, the team or the organization. We observed that. Then we started talking in late May and June.”
Suzuki used that time to assess several factors that would be important in his decision. During Mariners trips to Boston and New York, he would envision himself playing for those teams.
“Fans from opposing teams always told me, ‘Please come to our team,’” Suzuki said. “To be honest, I was moved during those times. Also, the fans in Japan asked me to come back and play.”
The fans in Seattle and the Mariners’ turnaround to become a competitive team moved him most.
“When I came back to Seattle and the fans asked me to stay here, that was the moment that meant the most to me,” he said. “That’s when I decided.”
He said he might not have returned if the Mariners hadn’t been winning this season.
“That’s a possibility,” he said. “If you look at the potential on this team, you can understand why the record is what it is right now. Now we’re at a place where all the hard work is blossoming. I can see this team continuing to be good.”
The signing ended what could have been a huge burden for the Mariners well beyond any distraction it would have created this season.
“If he had gone on the free-agent market, a lot of our offseason would have been spent trying to sign him,” Bavasi said. “You have to understand what a terrific opportunity he has passed up. He has taken himself off a real aggressive free-agent market by signing here. He wouldn’t be doing that unless he really believed in his teammates and this club.”
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