Ichiro is Becoming Impatient

From George King:

Ichiro Suzuki’s willingness to wait on the Yankees has declined to the point where the veteran outfielder is talking to other teams.

“At the beginning we talked a lot but since that time, zero,’’ agent Tony Attanasio said of discussions with the Yankees. “As far as we are concerned we don’t care what the Yankees do. We have had conversations with multiple clubs. If we see something we like he will go through with it.’

In a week’s time, Ichiro has completely reversed field.

“There has been a lot of interest [from other teams] but he enjoyed playing for the Yankees so much it’s hard for him to say no to the Yankees,’’ Attanasio said a week ago yesterday. “His preference is to stay there instead of going someplace else, but we’ll wait and see.’’

Of course, Ichiro’s reversal doesn’t mean he can’t return to The Bronx, where he was a fan favorite. Thanks to a torrid 14-for-20 stretch over five games in mid-September, he batted .322 in 67 games as a Yankee.

Nor did general manager Brian Cashman eliminate Ichiro from the list of outfield candidates he will talk to about replacing Nick Swisher in right field.

“I’m really not in position to comment, but our focus was first on pitching and see the amount of dollars we needed to secure pitching,’’ Cashman said. “Now we’ll focus on players who want to talk to us.’’

Letting Ichiro sign somewhere else would be a major mistake. That being said, I understand why the Yankees were focused on pitching in the last few weeks. Hopefully, now that they can turn their attention to right field they'll get the Ichiro situation settled quickly.