Marlins' Ichiro wants to play until he's 50

Few active players have a better Hall of Fame case than Ichiro Suzuki, and the Miami Marlins' outfielder said, "The way I feel, how I'm thinking, I feel like nothing can stop me (from playing into my 50's)," according to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald.

The 43-year-old Ichiro is in the last year of what turned out to be a two-year, $4-million deal with the Marlins after the team picked up his $2-million option for 2017. It will be interesting to see whether a team is prepared to take a chance on a 44-year-old player next offseason. While Bartolo Colon signed with the Atlanta Braves this offseason in what will be his age-44 season, a hitter that old hasn't played since Omar Vizquel played 60 games for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2012 at 45 years old.

Ichiro's translator, Allen Turner, said, "There's nobody in the world that takes more swings over the course of a year than (Ichiro). Guaranteed."

Noting his translator's presumed bias, it's still worth mentioning that Ichiro's conditioning and work ethic is renowned.

"Physically, unless you have some kind of injury," Ichiro told Spencer, "you don't really need a break." He added, "when you retire from baseball, you have until the day you die to rest." Asked what he will do when the day to retire finally comes: "I think I'll just die," Ichiro responded.

Ichiro added an impressive career milestone in August by becoming just the 30th player in MLB history to collect his 3,000th hit with a triple against the Colorado Rockies. Going into the 2017 season, Ichiro sits 24th on the all-time hits list, just 23 behind Rod Carew.