Japan’s Suzuki Eyes a Move to U.S. Majors

A 27-year-old outfielder considered the best hitter in Japan became available to the 30 major league teams Thursday.

Ichiro Suzuki, a winner of seven consecutive batting titles in Japan’s Pacific League, could become the first position player from his country to play in the majors through a complicated process that will test the resolve--and finances--of interested U.S. teams. Several are expected to join the two-pronged bidding, among them, perhaps, the Dodgers and Angels.

Executives of the local clubs said Thursday they were aware of Suzuki’s ability and availability but hadn’t decided whether they would participate in the bidding for a player whose renown in Japan is such that he was known to fans and media as Ichiro, the only name he needed on the back of his uniform.

A left-handed hitter with a .353 career average, he is considered a leadoff or No. 2 hitter and is compared by U.S. scouts to Kenny Lofton of the Cleveland Indians.

Bobby Valentine, the New York Met manager who became familiar with Suzuki while managing in Japan, was asked about him during the recent World Series and called him one of the five best outfielders in the world.

“I don’t care who the other four are, he has to be one of the five,” Valentine said.

As such, Suzuki is an attractive but expensive--and possibly risky--proposition for U.S. teams, which first have to compensate his Japanese team, the Orix Blue Wave, and then meet Suzuki’s contract demands.

Although he will not be a free agent in Japan until after the 2001 season, Suzuki may be the first player to move to the U.S. under a posting system initiated after the New York Yankees’ complex signing of Hideki Irabu in 1997 and designed to facilitate fairer transfers.

Under the format known as the American-Japanese Protocol, if a Japanese player wants to play in the U.S. and his team agrees, it posts his availability any time between Nov. 1 and March 1. Once the player is posted, interested U.S. teams have four days to submit bids to the office of the U.S. commissioner, who determines the highest bid and forwards it to the Japanese team. If that team accepts the bid, the U.S. team then has 30 days in which to negotiate a contract with the player.

Only when that contract is resolved does the Japanese team get the money. If no agreement is reached with the player, he cannot be posted again until the following year. Likewise, if the Japanese team doesn’t accept the U.S. bid, the player cannot be posted again until the next year.

Orix found itself in a situation with Suzuki that many U.S. clubs have faced with prospective free agents. They chose to post him now and get money for him, rather than lose him as a free agent a year from now with no compensation.

U.S. clubs were notified Thursday that Suzuki had been posted by the Blue Wave and that they have until Wednesday night to submit bids to the commissioner’s office. Some U.S. executives speculated that it may take at least $8 million to satisfy Orix and a multiyear contract averaging $6 million or more to satisfy Suzuki, who made an estimated $5.3 million with the Blue Wave this year.