The Miami Marlins have had a tough month. First they lost right-hander Jose Fernandez to a horrific accident. They then went off to miss the playoffs by 7.5 games after having a wild card spot late in August. For the Marlins, it is time to pick up the pieces after a rough season.
The team announced today that they have exercised Ichiro Suzuki‘s contract for the 2017 season. The team also added $2 million to his option for next year.
It will only cost the Miami Marlins $2 million to bring back Ichiro, who had a great season with the team. He reached the 3,000 hit mark for his MLB career on August 7th. He became the 30th player all-time to reach the mark. On the year, Ichiro hit .288/.352/.374 in 365 plate appearances. It was a cheap cost to bring back Ichiro as a fourth outfielder. With Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, and Christian Yelich, Ichiro is not expected to play a lot next season and mostly play off the bench.
The Marlins also announced last week that they signed Martin Prado to a three-year extension. That extension is worth $40 million and will pay out $11.5 million, $13.5 million, and $15 million over the next three seasons.
In 658 plate appearances, Prado hit .305/.359/.417 this season with eight home runs and 75 RBI’s. Prado was set to hit free-agency this winter and with a weak free agency class, he could have acquired a huge deal. The team got ahead of the curve and locked the veteran up for three years before any other team could get a chance. The Marlins had to bring both Ichiro and Prado back for next season as both players had tremendous seasons.
The Miami Marlins made another move this week as well. They fired their hitting coach Barry Bonds after finishing the season 27th in all of baseball in runs scored. The interesting thing is that the Marlins finished 5th in all of baseball in hits but 27th in runs. That issue is usually attributed to coaching, so it is no wonder why they let Bonds go. The Marlins have the talent to win more than 79 games. If the team does not make the playoffs next year, Don Mattingly may join Bonds.
Ichiro is on his way to Cooperstown. Suzuki is 25th on the all-time hits list, that doesn’t include 1,278 hits he had in Japan over nine seasons. A good move for both sides, it now appears that Ichiro might retire a Marlin.
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