Ichiro released by Mariners; moving to front office

Sad to see Ichiro go but at least he ended his career in Seattle with a bat in his hand. As opposed to fading away as a non-signed free agent.

As for him not officially retiring, wouldn't it be awesome if the Mariners signed him to a one day contract so he could officially retire during their home opener in Japan?

Wow, the end of an era. It would have been nice if he had been able to finish the season and go out on top, this feels a bit anti climactic for such a brilliant career.

Was looking forward to Ohtani vs Ichiro this weekend.

The end of an era, better now, than face not getting any offers to play for a MLB team. If he wants to keep playing, he'll have to come back to Japan, but I doubt that is an option for him.

Best wishes to him and his wife, maybe she will finally get a break from making curry for breakfast every morning!

With Ichiro's track record of success, his personality, his unique perspective and his work ethic, he is singularly positioned to impact both our younger players and the veterans in the clubhouse,

HIS work ethic, is his, I think that Ichiro is going to find it very difficult, because of his closed personality, to actually teach or mentor younger players. He is very well known for being aloof, and comes off as arrogant as well. Not good traits for a coach.

He's had a nice career, and with the vagueness of this announcement he may get to play a few more games such as about a weeks worth of exhibition and regular season games in 3-4 Japanese cities to open the 2019 season.

Yubaru, I know you're mostly jesting and stuff, but Ichiro's wife gets a break from cooking every offseason when he lives solo in Kobe for fitness training. That is a good quarter of the year off at least. And your psychological insights such as aloof and arrogant don't seem to be shared by younger players like Dee Gordon, who on both the Marlins and Mariners praised and shared hugs with Ichi. I bet that compared to what we can easily observe about Ichi's interactions, you are actually more aloof around coworkers half your age. If you come back with stories about hugging any of them, I'm calling BS in advance.