Former New York Mets general manager Steve Phillips recently detailed a stunning little-known fact that will frustrate long-time fans. That being the club’s previous ownership blowing a golden opportunity to sign new Hall-of-Famer Ichiro Suzuki in 2001.

Similar to other major sports teams in New York, the Mets organization has always been willing to make big trades and signings in free agency. Bringing in stars like Mike Piazza, Billy Wagner, Pedro Martinez, Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, and Carlos Beltran played big roles in returns to relevancy for the franchise.

However, as many Mets fans know, there have been far more acquisitions that have gone terribly. Players like Carlos Baerga, Roberto Alomar, Juan Samuel, Jeremy Burnitz, Jason Bay, and many more never came close to living up to expectations in New York. However, there is also a third layer to that history. The players the team missed out on.

Seattle Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki has been in the headlines this week for coming up one vote short of being a unanimous first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. However, a former GM for the team revealed on Thursday that the Japanese baseball icon could have been going into Cooperstown as a Met if not for the team’s ownership being cheap when he was available in 2001.

Did the New York Mets miss out on signing Ichiro Suzuki by $3 million?

“When Ichiro was first coming over, I was general manager for the Mets then, and we were in on him,” former Mets GM Steve Phillips told MLB Network Radio. “And I could only muster getting permission for $11 million. So we came up short. Three years, $14 million was what Seattle got him for. For $3 million more how different could the narrative have been if he was a Met his entire career? With how it turned out, and the what-ifs around that, I might still be Mets general manager right now.”

One can only wonder how much of a difference Suzuki could have made if he had signed with the team in 2001. Maybe they could have made a couple more postseason trips in 2001 and 2002. However, more than that, when they had a resurgence led by young stars and Beltran in 2006, maybe that team would have gone on to win a World Series instead of losing in Game 7 of the NLCS.

New York Mets fans already had enough reason to hate the era of the Wilpon family as the owners. This is just more cause for supporters of the team to be glad they are gone. And Steve Cohen and his massive bank account are now overseeing the club.

Suzuki would go on to be a 10-time All-Star, 10-time Gold Glove winner, he was the 2001 AL Rookie of the Year and MVP when he hit .350 in his debut season and also earned three Silver Sluggers.