Ichiro Suzuki requested a trade, but the Mariners front office was thrilled to get him to the Yankees. One of the toughest maneuvers in sports is to transition an icon through his fade.
The player is usually slow to acknowledge the diminishment, and he is often joined in his delusion by a sizeable percentage of fans. The fans are blinded by their loyalty and passion to someone whom they have spent years idolizing.
Ichiro also, uniquely, had a close relationship with Mariners owner Hiroshi Yamauchi. The belief was that friendship assured Ichiro could play with Seattle for sizeable contracts as long as he wanted. That would undermine baseball operations, which was going to have to de-emphasize his importance and deal with the backlash while Ichiro’s salary still took up precious portions of payroll during a rebuilding phase.
It was going to be a soap opera with a fading icon plus angered fans insisting Ichiro was the same as ever and nothing should change in his usage or treatment.
In other words, exactly where the Yankees were heading not long ago with Derek Jeter. From the beginning of the 2010 season until Jeter was injured on June 10, 2011, Jeter hit .267 in 216 games — roughly equivalent to a season and a third. In that period, he had a .337 on-base percentage, a .358 slugging percentage and, thus, a .695 OPS.
It was 913 at-bats, mostly of feeble grounders, and we saw indicators of how ugly this could get as the Yanks and Jeter engaged in contentious contract negotiations after the 2010 campaign.
But from coming off the disabled list last season through going into last night’s game, Jeter was at .319/.368/.429 for a .798 OPS in 165 games/692 at-bats. It is not his prime, but it is close enough that the Yankees could table the Ichiro-esque-type discomfort for a future date.
“It wasn’t just me,” a veteran scout said. “Most scouts thought Derek had reached his decline and would not come back. But he seems to have broken back through that wall. He has some spring in his game again. It is kind of incredible.”
Can the Yankees hope for a second such revival? Because from the beginning of last season through his first three games as a Yankee, Ichiro was at .268/.302/.342 for a .644 OPS in 1,157 plate appearances/259 games. He had the third-most plate appearances in that time — symbolic that Seattle felt forced to play him no matter what — but his .644 OPS was 148th out of 154 players with at least 750 plate appearances.
If this trend continues, the Yankees could more easily minimize a player they already have asked to hit eighth and play left field than Seattle ever could have.
Bombers on Lee’s trade list
Like Cole Hamels just had included in his six-year, $144 million extension with the Phillies, Cliff Lee is contractually allowed to pick nine teams to which he would accept a trade. I heard the Yankees are on that list, along with many other big-market teams. The Braves and Marlins also are on the list, probably because Lee realizes Philadelphia would not want to trade him within the NL East.
The Yankees have pursued Lee heavily in the past, having a trade in principle with Seattle that fell apart during the 2010 season and failing to sign him after that year despite the largest overall offer. But they are not pursuing him now as they continue to pledge to stay under the $189 million luxury tax threshold in 2014.
Angels all in with Greinke
The Angels trade yesterday of three good prospects — shortstop Jean Segura, John Hellweg and Ariel Pena — to Milwaukee for Zack Greinke emphasized a few items:
* After signing Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson last offseason, the Angels were all in this year. They were close to the first-place Rangers, but also in peril of not even being a wild card. With all they have now spent in money and prospects that would be devastating.
* They know the Dodgers, under new ownership, want to regain dominance in Southern California, and are pursuing a big pitcher of their own, maybe Miami’s Josh Johnson or the Cubs’ Ryan Dempster.
* The blood feud between the Angels and Rangers is real, kind of the 2012 version of what Yankees-Red Sox was not long ago. They keep ratcheting up to outdo the other. The Rays, for example, were hoping once Greinke went to one, the other would react by giving up more to get James Shields.
An NL executive — noting Greinke joining Jered Weaver and Dan Haren in the rotation — called the Angels “definitely formidable.” But knowing Greinke can leave as a free agent after the season, an AL exec said, “This is further proof it’s a seller’s market. [Milwaukee] got a great return for two months. Too much even for a guy as good as Greinke.”
Bosox need struggling Lester to ace Yanks
The Red Sox are trying to obtain a starter between now and Tuesday’s deadline, though general manager Ben Cherington acknowledged the prices were high. He also said how the team did this weekend would influence their aggressiveness and a 10-3 loss last night to the Yankees dropped the Red Sox two games under .500, 11 1/2 games behind the Yankees and into further into a wild-card ditch.
What Boston needs most to revive is for its starter today, Jon Lester (5-8, 5.46 ERA), to pitch like the ace he was supposed to be rather than the guy who is 0-3 with a 15.32 ERA in his last three starts.
“The noise around him bothers me,” Cherington said. “He’s having a rough spot. When we’ve been good in the past, we circled the wagons around guys who were struggling. Maybe this is a carryover from last September [the Red Sox’s historic collapse], and we are an easy target and [Lester] is an easy target. All I know is I believe in him. He’s going to be a really good pitcher again. But I don’t like all the energy focusing on just him [for Boston’s problems].”
Cherington cited “delivery issues” and problematic confidence for Lester’s problems.