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The New York Yankees seemed to acquire an aging, worsening outfielder in Ichiro Suzuki from the Seattle Mariners in the middle of the season. However, Ichiro batted .322/..340/.454 in only 67 games. He must have enjoyed his time in New York because Ichiro wants to be back with the Yankees next season.
Ichiro enjoyed playing with a winning atmosphere and the consensus believes that Ichiro could be re-joining the Yankees on a one-year deal worth between $5-8 million. However, since Yankee Stadium is built with the short porch in right field, the team wants to build around left-handed power which will make it harder to retain Ichiro and keep Brett Gardner on the team.
Brian Cashman will have a decision to make in what to do with the outfield and it could either leave Ichiro still wishing to be a Yankee in 2013 or moving Gardner to a reserve role or having him split time in the outfield with Ichiro. If the Yankees do not get the power that the franchise hopes to get out of the free agent market, there could not be a reason why both players wouldn’t be able to play the corner outfield positions in 2013.
Gardner was injured for most of the 2012 season and did not really contribute as much as he would have liked. Gardner got a chance in the postseason against the Detroit Tigers to turn things around but did not get the job done.
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