Marlins have had internal discussions about bringing back Ichiro

At 41 years old, some believed that this season would be the last for veteran Ichiro Suzuki, however that may not be the case. Manager Dan Jennings (and former GM) told Joel Sherman of the New York Post that the Marlins are considering bringing Ichiro back for the 2016 season.

Jennings said Ichiro's "most prepared player been around" Good role model for youngsters. Says #Marlins have (cont)

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) June 17, 2015

had "internal discussions) about bringing Ichiro back next yr. #Marlins

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) June 17, 2015

Ichiro has shown that he can still hit at age 41, and has given Miami a quality fourth outfield option to compliment Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton. In 155 plate appearances, Ichiro has hit .289 with a .342 on-base percentage.

With old age comes diminished returns though, and Ichiro has seen diminished returns both defensively and on the base paths. He's produced just a 60% success rate on stolen bases, which actually has wound up costing the Marlins runs overall. For comparison, the last two years he spent in New York, he sported a 83% stole base rate. On defense, DRS has Ichiro at -7 runs total (all three outfield spots), where zero is considered average.

The former Mariner and Yankee is chasing down 3,000 hits, and could be one of the reasons that Miami might be interested in bringing him back. At his current pace, Ichiro will finish the 2015 season with 2,949 hits, which would put him 51 short of the magic number.

Despite the comments from Jennings, it's unknown where Ichiro stands on the possibility of a return and with the way the Marlins have been run lately, he may want to explore other options if there are interested teams.