Ichiro becomes oldest player to start in center field since 1900

Ichiro has been amazing throughout his major league career and added to his legacy by starting in center field on Sunday.

It’s hard not to like Ichiro Suzuki. He announced himself to the U.S. in 2001 when he hit .350 with 242 hits for a Seattle Mariners team that won a record 116 games. In the previous few seasons, the team had lost Hall of Fame caliber players Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Alex Rodriguez. Ichiro showed up and the Mariners had one of the great seasons of all time. He was an All-Star, a Silver Slugger Winner, a Gold Glove outfielder and the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP.

That was a long time ago. Ichiro is now a 43-year-old backup outfielder on the Miami Marlins, but it’s still hard not to like him. Last year, he picked up his 3,000^th career hit in the U.S. Add in the 1,278 hits he had in Japan to his hit total in the major leagues and his career total of 4,327 professional hits surpasses the 4,256 that Pete Rose had. Of course, Rose would like to add in his 427 minor league hits, which puts him back on top. Rose is the world’s most competitive 76-year-old.

When Marlins manager Don Mattingly decided to give regular center fielder Christian Yelich the day off on Sunday, he didn’t know he was about to make history. He started 43-year-old Ichiro Suzuki in center field, making Ichiro the oldest player to start in center since 1900, according to Elias Sports.

Ichiro was 35 days older than Rickey Henderson was when Henderson started in center for the Red Sox back in 2002. (Side note: How many people remember Rickey Henderson playing for the Red Sox?) When Henderson started in center on July 24, 2002, he was 0-for-2 with a walk and a run scored. He was also having a solid season. He would hit .223/.369/.352 in 72 games for the Red Sox that year. That made him right at league average as a hitter (100 wRC+).

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Ichiro, on the other hand, is really struggling this year. He was 0-for-4 with a run scored in Sunday’s game, and is now hitting .200/.232/.284, well below league average (34 wRC+). This can be explained in part by the role he has these days. He’s been a pinch-hitter for the most part, with almost half of his plate appearances coming off the bench. Pinch-hitting is notoriously difficult, even for one of the great players of his generation.

Ichiro is still an asset on the field, and a great guy to have on a team, but his bat has been missing in action all season long. The most shocking aspect of Ichiro’s game has been a 26.3 percent strikeout rate. Ichiro has never come close to striking out as often as he has this season. His career rate is 10.1 percent. He’s also pulled the ball more often than he has before (45.5 percent this year; 31.5 percent for his career). He does have two home runs already, so maybe he’s trying to take advantage of the home run surge we’ve seen around baseball. (He’s had just one home run in each of the last three seasons.)

If the Marlins were a contending team, they would have to think hard about whether Ichiro is a good use of a roster spot. As it is, they are 10.5 games out in the NL East and 11 games out of a Wild Card spot, so they can keep him on the roster and hope he starts to hit. Just last year, he hit .291/.354/.376, with 48 runs scored and 10 steals. Ichiro has said he wants to play until he’s 50, but he won’t get there if he continues to straddle the Mendoza Line.

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Hopefully, Ichiro will turn it around and start hitting. He’s dedicated to the game, has kept himself in tremendous shape and seems like an all-around good guy. Major League Baseball is better with Ichiro in it. Also, as long as he continues to get some playing time, he will continue to move up the career hits list. He’s currently in 25^th place all-time, just four hits behind Rod Carew, six hits behind Rickey Henderson and 11 hits behind Craig Biggio, all Hall of Fame players. Ichiro’s ticket to the Hall of Fame has already been punched, but it would be nice to see him finish out his career on a good note, not struggling to hit .200.