One of the best batters of our era, Ichiro Suzuki, is in the twilight of his career but still may have a little left in the tank for fantasy owners.  He’s no longer an everyday player, but in the opportunities Suzuki has had this year he has made the most of them.  Suzuki has an impressive .364 batting average and has scored nine runs in only 55 at bats.  If you have him on your team right now he makes for a good plug and play when he is in the starting lineup, but at this point in his career he is not much more than that.

There was a small glimmer of hope for Suzuki owners when Beltran was forced out of the game due to elbow pain.  If Beltran is unable to play Suzuki is the next one in line to step up and play the outfield.  Unfortunately Suzuki is dealing with a back injury of his own right now and was not even available as a pinch hitter on Tuesday if needed.  Depending on the severity of his injury Suzuki could make for a valuable pickup in your league if the Beltran injury proves to be more series than the Yankees think, and lands him on the disabled list.

Outside of starting for an injured outfielder though Suzuki provides little value for your fantasy team outside of the deepest of leagues, say like a 20 man league.  If you are in a deep league Suzuki is proving to be a capable batter still and can provide you with a solid average and a decent number of runs scored as he still is a fairly fast runner.  Don’t expect too many steals though unless he starts for an extended period of time.  Suzuki has double digit steals in every year of his major league career but as bench player this year he only has two steals.  My advice unless you are in the deepest of leagues or Suzuki gets a chance to start due to injury don’t waste a roster spot with him as he just doesn’t receive enough consistent playing time to garner a roster spot.