Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki recently tied and surpassed Ty Cobb for second on the unofficial professional hits leaderboard. He entered Saturday’s game against the Phillies with 2,923 hits in the major leagues, leaving him 77 hits shy of another major milestone — 3,000 MLB hits.
The Marlins would be open to the 41-year-old returning to the team for the 2016 season to join the 3,000 hit club, Craig Davis of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. Ichiro is on pace to finish with 105 hits, which would mean 26 more hits between now and the end of the season, putting him at 2,949. Assuming he would hit somewhere in the .250-.270 area with enough at-bats, he would likely claim his 3,000th hit during the first half of the season.
Ichiro carried a .265/.317/.326 batting line with one home run, 20 RBI, and 36 runs into Saturday night’s game. He signed a one-year, $2 million deal with the Marlins in January and went into the season as a back-up outfielder. A combination of injuries and poor performance led to Ichiro getting much more playing time than initially anticipated.
