10. Ichiro Suzuki – Net worth $90 million
Ichiro Suzuki began playing baseball for the Orix BlueWave in his native Japan in 1992, where his manager disliked his strange swing.
When he moved to the Seattle Mariners in 2001 he was the first Japanese player to play in MLB, and many considered him to be too small to compete with the other professionals. They were wrong, of course, and his 2001 season was a triumph. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, achieved the most hits in a season since 1930 and was dubbed “the key to Seattle’s offense” by the Yankees manager at the time, Joe Torre. His career went from strength-to-strength after 2001.
Ichiro is credited with making MLB more accessible to other Japanese players, and has made baseball particularly popular in his home country.
