The Seattle Mariners have turned down a trade offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers to swap outfielder Gary Sheffield for former Orix BlueWave outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, Major League Baseball's official Web site reported Thursday.
According to MLB.com, Mariners general manager Pat Gillick confirmed the offer had been received and rejected, saying that the club had no intention of trading Suzuki, a seven-time Pacific League batting champion, for Sheffield.
"Basically, from our standpoint, I think we have a very good player in Ichiro. We are a defense and pitching-minded team and (trading Suzuki) means we would be hurting ourselves defensively," the Web site quoted Gillick.
Suzuki, better known to Japanese fans by his first name, signed with the Mariners in December, making him the first Japanese position player to sign a major league contract.
He has a .353 career average in nine seasons with the Kobe-based BlueWave, with 118 home runs, 510 RBIs and 658 runs scored.