[nfbwatlk] Ichiro may leave

[Mike Freeman]

Ichiro may leave
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/304515_mari21.html

Ichiro may leave

M's star admits thinking about free agency

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

By JOHN HICKEY
P-I REPORTER

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Mariners icon Ichiro Suzuki admitted for the first time 
Tuesday that he might leave Seattle after the 2007 season.

Stopping far short of saying he wanted out, Ichiro said the idea of 
becoming a free agent after his contract expires this year is at least 
worth considering.
His agent said the Mariners' ability to win this season will figure 
prominently into Ichiro's decision.

"In 15 years of playing baseball, I've never filed for free agency," 
Ichiro said as the Mariners gathered for their first full-squad workout 
of spring training.
"I've never had a choice before in the past. If you ask me, 'Is it 
possible that I might become a free agent,' I would say, yes, it is 
possible.

"But if you ask me what my feelings are about it, I can't express it.

"I'm not even sure myself what my feelings are."

The possibility of losing Ichiro, an All-Star in each of his six seasons 
with the club, likely will loom over the Mariners. And there is more. 
Tony Attanasio,
Ichiro's longtime agent, suggested the Mariners may be forced to part 
with Ichiro this summer -- before his contract expires.

"If it appears to them that they can't sign Ichiro," Attanasio said 
Tuesday afternoon, "they might have to trade him. If they didn't, they'd 
risk just getting
a draft choice for him."

As recently as this past weekend, Ichiro was quoted as saying he wasn't 
thinking about free agency. As the Mariners consider his return a top 
priority,
it seemed that a negotiated contract extension probably would come over 
the course of spring training.

Now that timetable is gone.

Attanasio confirmed he has had preliminary conversations with the 
Mariners' chief contract negotiator, Bart Waldman. The two were supposed 
to meet in Seattle
on Monday.

Attanasio and Waldman are fighting colds, the agent said, so the 
face-to-face negotiations have been put off. They may begin this week.

For both sides, the stakes are huge. Ichiro is the Mariners' top 
marketing tool. As such, and because he has six consecutive 200-hit 
seasons, he would seem
to be a strong candidate for a yearly salary ranging from $17 million to 
$20 million for whatever extension he signs. He is due to make $11 
million this
year.

Ichiro has to balance playing in a city he frankly loves against the 
fact the Mariners have had three consecutive losing seasons.

"In Ichiro's mind, the team's performance is really measured by his 
first year," Attanasio said, referring to the 2001 season when the 
Mariners set the
American League record with 116 wins. "He saw such tremendous enthusiasm 
in the city that year.

"He saw great joy in the clubhouse and enjoyed it. He has not seen it 
since. And he wants that.

"It's not all about money. We had a conversation Sunday night and I 
asked him if, theoretically, the Mariners offered him a billion-dollar 
contract, would
he take it.

"He said he'd have to think about it."

That reply should be a shot across the bow of the Good Ship Mariner, 
because the camaraderie and success the Mariners enjoyed in 2001 was a 
once-in-a-generation
thing, maybe a once-in-a-century thing. Repeating it is the most 
unlikely of scenarios.

Club CEO Howard Lincoln said on Tuesday that "it's extremely important 
to us" to get Ichiro's name on a contract extension.

"We want Ichiro to stay," Lincoln said. "We want him to play his entire 
career here and go in the Hall of Fame as a Mariner."

General manager Bill Bavasi added about $15 million to the payroll this 
year, bumping it to $111 million in an effort to make the club 
competitive in the
AL West.

He added starting pitchers Jeff Weaver, Miguel Batista and Horacio 
Ramirez, and there are two new faces in the starting lineup, right 
fielder Jose Guillen
and designated hitter Jose Vidro.

Do those additions make the Mariners good enough for Ichiro, who talked 
as far back as last year about the desire to play for a team that has a 
chance to
win?

"Today's just the first day," he said through an interpreter, "and even 
when we get to the end of spring training, we still won't know how good 
we'll be.
We'll only know that when we play. The feeling of getting upset (because 
of losing) is something you cannot get used to. So I am very upset."

Ichiro said he would listen to any offer the Mariners care to make. He 
just wants more than money.

"I'm not ear-muffing my ears," he said. "I'm looking and I'm listening. 
I know baseball is a job, but to me it's more like a hobby."

The translation there is that Ichiro has plenty of money and knows he's 
going to get truckloads more no matter where he plays in 2008. So he can 
afford
to think about the other aspects of the game.

Given that, it seems virtually certain he won't strike a deal with the 
club between now and the time the Mariners leave Peoria. Opening Day is 
April 2 against
the Oakland Athletics at Safeco Field.

Attanasio said as much, and he said putting a timetable on the 
negotiations was not plausible.

In a best-case scenario, he suggested, Ichiro would stay with the 
Mariners. But Seattle will have to win, and win often, in 2007 for that 
to happen.

To this point, the 2007 season was shaping up to be about the future of 
Bavasi and manager Mike Hargrove, neither of whom has produced a winner 
in Seattle.

On Tuesday, the focus changed. It's now about whether or not Ichiro will 
continue to be the face of Seattle baseball.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P-I reporter John Hickey can be reached at 206-448-8004 or 
johnhickey at seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer