BALTIMORE — Ichiro Suzuki still looks good on a baseball field — just not quite as often as in the past.
There will be flashes, like Sunday, when he singled, stole second, took third on a fly ball and scored the winning run for the Yankees against the Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth inning on a wild pitch.
But he followed that by showing who he mainly is now by going 0-for-7 in his next two starts with three strikeouts. That flail-and-bail style that seemed an optical illusion (How could someone swing that way and make such consistent contact?) no longer features nearly the same hand-eye genius.
His average is .266 — the lowest it has been since mid-June. His OPS is .655, which ranks 134th out of 143 qualifiers. From Aug. 11-Sept. 11, Ichiro petered out, hitting just .202 with a .508 OPS — his extra-base hits and walks going from infrequent to rarities.
Age and decline have replaced mystique and aura as the most common associations with the Yankees — as became pertinent again Wednesday when it was revealed Derek Jeter would miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury. Yet, generally, Ichiro’s name is not mentioned. Give him credit for avoiding the injury epidemic that has claimed most of his geriatric cohorts — the limber Ichiro is the only player in the majors 39 or over who has enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title.
But why has manager Joe Girardi let him bat that often?
Part of it is about Ichiro’s defense, still pretty high-end. Part of it is about a season in which the Yankees have been bereft of better options.
However, that is not the case now. Girardi has better alternatives than Thomas Neal. The manager can at least put more threatening presences into the lineup than Ichiro at a time when it feels as if the pitching staff is running on fumes, making shootouts more the norm.
Perhaps, the de-emphasis has begun. Ichiro did not start Wednesday, though he had more plate appearances against Orioles starter Scott Feldman than any player in the game. He wasn’t in the starting lineup Thursday against lefty Wei-Yin Chen. Girardi’s style is to defuse or downplay any potential controversy, so when I asked if Ichiro were no longer a regular the manager sidestepped that. What he said was he would look at match-ups to decide a lineup daily. That hardly made Ichiro sound like a starter.
At this point, using Ichiro as more than a spot starter or a late-game runner or defensive replacement is honoring who he was over who he is.
Yes, Ichiro’s overall stats against lefties remain strong. But since Aug. 1, he has a .281 on-base percentage against southpaws and a .290 slugging percentage.
Brett Gardner has more life in his body and bat now and most play the rest of the games, even against difficult lefties. Gardner has proven to be a tough out with more pop than expected (one more extra-base hit than Justin Upton). Neither the tough out nor the pop is particularly true of Ichiro. He has 25 extra-base hits, fewer than half as many as Gardner.
Against righties, the Yankees’ norm should be Lyle Overbay at first, Mark Reynolds at designated hitter, Alfonso Soriano in left field and Curtis Granderson in right. Reynolds is streaky, but has been generally hot since being obtained. The Yankees should run with that as long as possible. His ability to do damage has aided the lineup.
This version of Ichiro simply does not help enough. His mid-.600 OPS resembles the 2011-12 Seattle showing that had the Mariners anxious to move an icon out.
The Yankees let an illusionary hot streak or two last year — and an illusionary belief fans loved him — motivate signing Ichiro to a two-year, $13 million contract. Thus, this issue will linger into next year, unless the Yankees can find a taker for some or all of Ichiro’s $6.5 million salary for 2014.
It was always wrongheaded to believe the Yankees could thrive with the limited power of Ichiro and Gardner in the same starting outfield. Perhaps if the Yankees retain free-agent-to-be Granderson, he could join Soriano and Gardner to form the regular outfield, with Ichiro and Vernon Wells providing lefty-righty veteran bench support. The Yankees would hope that veteran quintet provide cover time for Tyler Austin or Slade Heathcott or Mason Williams to rise from suspect prospect to something meaningful in time for 2015.
In the here and now, desperation to win daily trumps concerns about disrespect. It is up to Girardi to make the prideful Ichiro feel useful in a limited role.
The Yankees need to win daily, and they have better options to do that in the starting lineup than Ichiro Suzuki.