Ichiro Suzuki is now on the New York Yankees

The New York Yankees announced they have acquired 10-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove Award-winning outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and cash considerations from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for RHP D.J. Mitchell and RHP Danny Farquhar. Suzuki, 38, had played his entire 12-year Major League career with the Seattle Mariners since becoming the first Japan-born position player in Major League history. He owns a .322 (2,533-for-7,858) career batting average with 1,176 runs, 295 doubles, 79 triples, 99 home runs, 633 RBI, 438 stolen bases, 513 walks and a .366 on-base percentage in 1,844 games. Among active players, Suzuki is second in steals, third in batting average (min: 3,000PA) and sixth in hits. Since his debut in 2001, he has 330 more hits than any other Major Leaguer. (Ichiro can hit anything!)

Suzuki is a two-time AL batting champion (.350 in 2001 and .372 in 2004) and has led or tied for the Major League lead in hits seven times (2001, ’04, ‘06-10), tying Pete Rose and Ty Cobb for the most such seasons all time. Additionally, he is the only player in Major League history to accomplish the feat in five consecutive years. From his debut season through 2010, he finished first or second in the AL in hits every year, and in 2011, he finished ninth.

Prior to playing in the Majors, Suzuki played for the Orix Blue Wave in Japan’s Pacific League for nine seasons (1992-2000) and was named the league’s MVP three times (1994-96). In 951 career games with Orix, he hit .353 (1,278-for-3,619) with 653 runs, 211 doubles, 23 triples, 118 home runs, 529 RBI and 199 stolen bases. Suzuki led the league in batting average for a Japanese-record seven straight years (1994-2000), while also winning a Gold Glove Award and being named to the Pacific League’s “Best Nine” in each of those seven seasons.

In his Major League rookie season of 2001, Suzuki batted a league-high .350 (242-for-692) with 34 doubles, 8 triples, 8 home runs, 69 RBI and a Major League-high 56 stolen bases, in becoming just one of two players all time to win the Rookie of the Year Award and the MVP in the same season, joining Boston’s Fred Lynn (1975).