Iwakuma has spent the season recovering from shoulder surgery. He plans to return to Japan and try to pitch in Nippon Professional Baseball.
While his teammates — all of them likely unaware of his decision — conversed/yelled in the Mariners’ clubhouse before Tuesday’s game at loud decibels to overcome the blaring music already playing, Hisashi Iwakuma stood quietly at his locker with his translator Antony Suzuki ready to discuss the end of his time with the Seattle Mariners and Major League Baseball.
After another season of starts, stops and setbacks in trying to return from offseason shoulder surgery, time ran out on Iwakuma and his chances to help the Mariners in 2018.