Ichiro Suzuki poses with his plaque after being induction in the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 27 at Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y. Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

Seattle Mariners Announce Statue Honoring Ichiro Suzuki For 2026

Originally posted on Seattle Mariners on SI
By Teren Kowatsch | Last updated Aug 9, 2025 10:29 PM ET

SEATTLE — The statues outside of T-Mobile Park will have some company in 2026.

The Seattle Mariners held a ceremony before a game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday honoring 2025 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Ichiro Suzuki. The organization retired Suzuki's No. 51. He joined Ken Griffey Jr. (No. 24), Edgar Martinez (No. 11) and Jackie Robinson (No. 42) as the only other players to have their numbers retired by the team.

Martinez, Griffey and late Hall of Fame Dave Niehaus all have statues. Niehaus' lies in T-Mobile Park and Martinez and Griffey's are on the sidewalk outside the ballpark.

During the pregame ceremony Saturday, team CEO/chairman John Stanton announced that Suzuki will receive a statue of his own in 2026. The statue will resemble Suzuki's iconic pose — him pulling up his right sleeve on his outstretched arm, bat in-hand.

Coming soon to @TMobilePark. #IchiroHOF pic.twitter.com/14zEleWIKY
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 10, 2025

Suzuki spent parts of 14 seasons with Seattle in his 19-year major league career. He was one of just two players in MLB history to win Rookie of The Year and MVP in the same season. He accomplished that feat in 2001, the last year the Mariners made the postseason before breaking a more-than two decade-long playoff drought in 2022.

Suzuki set MLB's single-season hit record with 262 knocks in 2004. The previous record, which George Sisler set with 257 hits in 1920 with the St. Louis Browns, stood for 84 years.

Including his nine years in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball with the Orix BlueWave, Suzuki has 4,367 career hits. That's more than any professional baseball player in history.

This article first appeared on Seattle Mariners on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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