Ichiro’s ‘retirement’ will involve wearing a uniform and taking batting practice every game

Ichiro Suzuki “retired” today, moving into a front office role with the Mariners and forfeiting the chance to be on an active roster for the rest of the season. He’s not saying this is the end of his career, leaving things open for a comeback in 2019, but also says he doesn’t want to play for anyone besides the Mariners. So it’s basically a retirement and baseball will miss him.

Except for that he’ll apparently still be taking batting practice everyday and wearing a uniform during games and generally just hangin’ out as he always have. If you know anything about Ichiro, his version of “hanging out” is actually days filled with a very specific routine and baseball regimen. He is not a “let’s hang out and relax and not think about baseball every second of every day” type of player.

Which is why this news makes sense. Ichiro once said that when he retired from baseball he would probably just die. That’s not the sound of someone about to buy a boat and sail off into the Pacific Ocean to enjoy his retirement.

The only thing different about Ichiro’s new role is that he won’t be allowed in the dugout during games. He still gets to stick to his routines, ostensibly in preparation for 2019 but also mostly so he has baseball to play in some manner on game days.

No one expected Ichiro to just walk away from the game, so not announcing his last game as to avoid fanfare but still being on the field in some capacity before games seems like the perfect situation. He hasn’t been placed on the voluntary retirement list yet so he gets to dole out some advice when he feels like it for this new job while keeping his life mostly the same as it was when he was on the active roster.

Or who knows. Maybe he just really loves the material Mariners’ uniforms are made out of and likes wearing it.